Angels of the Axis
by Lady Shockbox
Summary: Two hundred and eighty Zakos were stationed onboard the Dark Axis flagship, the Magna Musai, during its invasion on Neotopia. Their names and misadventures have been mostly unheard… until now. Ten Zakos per chapter. Slash. Het.
1. Zakos 1 through 10

Zakos one through ten have their stories told. Features Red, Blue, Yellow, Chef, Cook, Cyan, Showdown, Storm, Sightsee, and Wing.

* * *

_Two hundred and eighty Zakos were stationed onboard the Dark Axis flagship, the Magna Musai, during its invasion on Neotopia. Their names and misadventures have been mostly unheard… until now. The following writings are their stories finally told._

"For the future of the Dark Axis, Zako soldiers fight, yeah!"

**i**

_Red_

"Zako! I know I saw it around here _somewhere_…"

It there was anything that could have been learned from the Zakos onboard the _Magna Musai_, it was that Red who was the most adventurous. A bit silly in regards to his overall demeanor, but adventurous nevertheless. He was immediately stationed to the _Magna Musai_ during his original deployment and, during the little time that same flagship spent in Lacroa throughout the final stretch of the already nearly completed invasion, it was Red who was the first Zako to volunteer holding a perimeter around the area where the Horn of War had been established. He had been told that by at least everyone on the ship two or three times that he was the bravest of all of them, but he had mostly disregarded their comments off without much care for them. Being as outgoing as he was made him a very popular mech among his peers, but it had also garnered Zapper Zaku's attention multiple times. There was occasions where the colonel took him aside to express how much potential he had at becoming an officer and, possibly, a squad leader just like himself. Red had been fascinated by the thought and he often went into recharge dreaming about the endless possibilities. The thought of someday earning the rank as a squad leader like Zapper Zaku awed him to no end - even the mere thought of someday earning the rank as a commander - and he strove to be the best warrior he could.

That was until he found _it_.

Being as adventurous as he was, he also had a tendency to go places where he generally should not have. One of those places was the large storage bay deep within the _Magna Musai_. Useless junk was kept in there for no other purpose besides being in the way, but it was never cleaned out mostly because no one ever remembered it was there. Red remembered though, and he rummaged through the debris sometimes for hours on end looking solely out of curiosity. Another Zako's trash was another Zako's treasure however, and Red learned that for an absolute fact when he accidentally stumbled across an odd item that forever changed his outlook on his potential career path. It was a huge stack of paper bound by binding on the front, back, and side. It was able to open at the area that was not attached to the binding and the Zako had been so intrigued that he brought it back with him to his bunk.

He did some minor research on what it was called. The computer files said it was called a "book" which, granted, was an item originally invented by humans. Despite the fact it was a creation invented by organics, the material within the book kept him from throwing it back into the abyss of junk where he found it.

The book was filled with jokes. Jokes, pranks, sit up comedy, witty remarks to use in conversations… there were quotes and humorous lines and tips for aspiring "comedians," which was another term that Red had to look up. From what he learned, they were individuals who were purposely funny or amusing to entertain audiences. Red decided that he liked the thought of that a _lot_. The more he read that silly little book late at night in his bunk while the other Zakos were fast asleep, the more he wanted to live it. He made up his own routine and, one night while everyone was in the cafeteria getting their nightly rations, he put on his first show in the corner of the room on top of a table no one sat at. Blue - his bondmate - had been the only one watching at first, but then his humorous air seemed to draw the others in like moths to a single open flame. They laughed at his jokes and broke out into wild laughter at the exact moments he wanted them to. Eventually the commotion got so loud that Zapper Zaku showed up. Red had been worried momentarily about his arrival, but even the squad leader broke out in guffaws several times by Red's antics. By the time Red's performance was finished, Zapper pulled the soldier aside.

"That was funny," he said with a light snigger.

Red grinned and rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Thank you sir."

Zapper waved him off. "So, can't make up your mind, huh? What are you planning to be? A humorist or an officer?"

It finally occurred to Red to drastically think about what he wanted more just then. While he _had_ wanted to be an officer, it abruptly occurred to him that he felt so much… So much _happier_… Making other people laugh. He told Zapper that he wanted to be a comedian more than a warrior. He had to convince Zapper that he was not joking.

The squad leader looked at Red critically. "Really? It's too bad then. You're one of the best Zako soldiers we have…" The maroon warrior shook his head and trailed off. "You know, this gives me an idea. You didn't hear this from me, but the other soldiers seem like they could use something with some zest to get them riled up for invasions and missions. When we were working on the outskirts of Lacroa, everyone seemed a little unwilling. I bet we could change that."

Even though it was not a mission to help aid the Dark Axis on the battlefields, Zapper Zaku still gave him a mission regardless and Red was determined to complete it. _That_ mission was to inspire the other Zakos into fighting for their cause. A pep rally so to speak, filled with witty humor and portrayed as a meeting so that Sazabi wouldn't throw a fit if he ever found out about it. It was a brilliant idea, and Zapper Zaku had entrusted Red with taking care of it. The little Zako had been honored.

"I think I know the perfect place to have it. Remember the storage room? We need to clean it out."

"For what?" Zapper Zaku had been inquisitive.

"The stage."

All of this, of course, led Red to where he was now: Back in the piles of junk looking for another item he thought he saw one another one of his explorations. He had remembered seeing a box of something he knew he could put to good use, but it was going to be his last day to search. Zapper had already selected a team of Zakos to clean out and incinerate all the useless junk in the storage room to make space for the 'pep' meeting show area, and Red was absolutely _hell bent_ on finding that god damned box before they did. If he didn't find it…

He tossed part of a broken crate aside and he whooped cheerily when he found exactly what had been was searching for. It was a small black box with a silver clip on the front, and he gingerly lifted it up and shook it. Something rattled inside. He managed to pry it open with delicate fingers and he lifted the lid away to examine the contents resting within on the red velvet interior. The three microphones were antique, but Red was sure he could get them in working order with a little tuning.

He pulled out the one he liked best - the one with the rounded red mouthpiece - and his optic glowed vibrantly with rising triumph. "This will be fun, zako. The _Zako Zako Hour_ will be a smash hit!"

**ii**

_Blue_

Unlike his bonded, he was a very timid mech.

He had been stationed on the _Black Musai_ during his original deployment, under Commander Nightingale. It was involved in the invasion of Lacroa before it finally established itself as becoming a Horn of War. Whilst the _Black Musai_ was only engaged in minor battles that were always in their favor due to their superior numbers incoming aid from Deathscythe and Talgeese, the thought of being involved in any battle still commonly terrified Blue. It was never his choice to be a soldier - he had been created for the purpose, it was never his conscious decision to be a minion himself - and the mere thought of a fight where someone had the potential to get killed horrified him. _Especially_ if the person who was killed was him. He was generally dismissed as being a coward by the other Zakos he worked with, but it didn't stop him from desperately trying to apply to being sent to a new ship away from all the conflict. He hadn't made friends on the _Shadow Musai_ anyways, so it was not as if he was going to miss anyone.

After two weeks of fighting the very few human knights who had not been petrified by the bagubagu, he received a confirmation notice that would be his ticket away from the battles. The _Magna Musai_ - another ship that had come by to help the Black Musai crew conquer the rest of the dimension - was preparing to pull out due to the fact that what few resistance remained was miniscule. Blue already heard that the Magna Musai had single handedly wiped out an entire Gundam knight encampment, and it consequently meant that Commander Nightingale would have little to no problems taking over the rest of the kingdom. There were not many of the human nuisances left anyways. Within a day, Blue found himself on the _Magna Musai_'s Komusai being brought to his new station.

He met his bondmate within the first week.

The _Magna Musai_ had long since pulled out of Lacroa, but it didn't stop him from being so _timorous_. He would jump if anyone caught him by surprise and he was too shy to really introduce himself to anyone when the times arose. It was not his fault he was so fearful - part of him was positive that it had something to do with faulty programming - but then he met _him_. By sheer fate alone, he accidentally bumped into his future bondmate when they were going to the cafeteria to get their nightly provisions and he nearly tripped over himself in his startled state. The Zako he smacked into turned around to make sure he was all right, but then their optics made contact and it was love at first sight.

The thought of finding his bondmate made him anxious, but Red was a much braver bot than he was.

Unfortunately for him, Red's adventurous behavior didn't rub off on him. Blue hoped that it would for his sake - he wanted very badly to be as outgoing and extroverted as his mate and best friend - but never happened. Red tried to cheer him up by saying that it would come to him eventually, but Blue strongly doubted it. He was just as pessimistic as he was pusillanimous.

In fact, he was very nervous when Red crawled into his bunk one night to make a proposition to him.

Blue sat up on his berth and he fidgeted with his fingers, twirling them and looking at them instead of Red out of his apprehension alone. "Really? Are you _sure_ it's a good idea? What if…"

Red sighed and pinched the bridge of the place where his mouthpiece met his helmet. It was the equivalent of a human pinching the bridge of their nose. He looked away and downcast before turning back to face his bonded. His voice was low so that they wouldn't wake up the other Zakos sleeping around them. "I'm _certain_ it's a good idea, zako. It'll boost your confidence up."

"But… but what if no one _likes me_, zako?"

Before Blue could find the time to react or brace himself, Red suddenly closed the distance between them and he nuzzled their mouthpieces together. Warm, soothing air was wafted between them. Blue squeaked in surprise and shuddered, but he could not will himself to kiss back. He usually _never_ kissed back, but that was only because he was afraid of Red's reaction if he did something wrong. Red didn't seem to care despite this, and the Zako soldier trailed his mouthpiece down the side of his mate's helmet, vent cable, and down his to his shoulder guard. Blue shuddered and tilted his head back to allow the other mech better access while he clung to Red like lifeline. He was a safeguard to Blue, and he loved him just as the other mech did him.

Red sighed happily and he nuzzled the side of Blue's small throat before pulling away and pressing their foreheads together. Their optics met and, in the spur of the moment, Blue gingerly leaned forward and pecked the other Zako on the front of his vents. The adventurous Zako's optic lit up with a grin and he reached beside him to pull something out of the box he wanted to show his mate. Blue kept his optic locked with Red even when his bondmate pushed something into his arms. It was only when Red told him to that he looked down at it, and he saw he had been given a microphone with a blue mouthpiece that was shaped like a square.

Red was beaming even through their bond. _No one will not like you, zako. Besides, I'd love it if you were a host on the "Zako Zako Hour" with me._

Blue smiled. He figured he could try to not act so timid for once, and Red would be there to help him.

**iii**

_Yellow_

He had been suffering from depression.

The Zako soldier remembered very clearly when he had first been shipped onto the _Magna Musai_ from the _Lucid Musai_. He had been stationed on the latter Dark Axis ship from the very first time he was commissioned into the army, and he had so many friends… of course, that all changed when Gerbera - the General's personal aide and servant - deemed that commander Z'Gok had too many soldiers on his ship. Twenty-six Zako soldiers were discharged from service onboard the _Lucid Musai_ immediately and, unhappily for him, he had been one of them. _Just_ as unfortunately, all other twenty-five Zakos were sent to the _Shadow Musai_. By the sheer lack of luck alone, he was sent to the _Magna Musai_ alone without anyone he knew. To say he had been scared out of his little mind when he stepped onboard the new ship he would be forced to call home was an understatement. At least the resident squad leader had been nice to him… Zapper Zaku was the first to welcome him onto the ship, and the maroon warrior even took the Zako on a tour around the huge vessel on his own time. Yellow liked him much better than his old squad leader. Demon Doga was a vicious femme who was both vindictive and cruel. Zapper was her polar opposite, Yellow thought. The older colonel was bright and chipper, even considering his hardened age.

When it came time to bring Yellow to the quartering hall to set up his new bunk though, the other Zakos had completely rejected him.

"He's from the _Lucid Musai_? He must be a slob. That ship is filthier than a pile of slag, zako."

"If they shipped him over here by himself, they must have been _really_ desperate to get rid of him."

"I hope he's not anywhere near my bunk, zako."

Yellow had gone into recharge that night in tears.

His friends had promised to write to him and send him calls. They never did. After his first week on the _Magna Musai_ - a week where no one even bothered to talk to him or sit with him during lunch break - he hadn't heard as much as a squeak from them. He didn't bother to try contacting them simply because he accepted that they had abandoned him. The weight of that wretched thought came crashing down when another Zako soldier - a bully named Showdown - tripped him while he was walking by to attend to a monitor. His fall was not heavy but he broke down into sobs anyways. He didn't even care if all the others would start laughing at him. He bolted from that room faster than he could look up to see all the other Zakos' reactions. Zapper Zaku had caught onto the fact that something was wrong when he found Yellow in tears out in the hallway and he dismissed the upset Zako from his duties for the rest of the evening without batting an optic. Then he went off marching into the room with the other Zakos with a furious expression. Yellow left to retire to his own bunk thinking that he never wanted to get on the maroon warrior's bad side. He climbed into his own bed and went to sleep.

The following morning, he woke up early and went to get his rations in the cafeteria, but something strange happened.

Two Zakos suddenly sat down in front of him at the table he had been sitting at. Up until that point, he had been completely alone. The both of them were grinning, but their appearance weren't malevolent in any way at all. Yellow guessed right away that they were bondmates, and the mech on the left held out his hand. "We saw what Showdown did to you yesterday, and we're all really sorry that we were all so mean to you. No one deserves to be treated like that, zako. I'm Red by the way. The idiot next to me is Blue." Red's voice was cheery with a light pitch underlining the sound.

The Zako next to Red turned to look at him. He looked mildly agitated, but there was a look of admiration that shone in his pink optic. Yellow determined that the two mechs were _definitely_ bonded.

"Very funny, zako," Blue said. His voice was high pitched and scratchy with a grating undertone in stark contrast to Yellow's tenor.

"Oh." Yellow rubbed the back of his head bashfully. "What a coincidence. I'm Yellow." Nervously, he held his hand out.

Red's optic beamed with friendliness and he shook Yellow's hand. "Glad to meet you, zako! Are you interested in comedy by any chance?"

By this time, Blue had held his own hand out and Yellow released Red's to take it. As he shook it, he almost didn't hear Red offering to let Yellow be a co-host in a show they were going to start. _Zako Zako Hour_ or something like that. Either way, he found that he made two new best friends. The three of them became very close to inseparable after that.

He had been suffering from depression. _Had_ been. From then on, he did not have to deal with it anymore.

**iv**

_Chef_

To say he was a Talgeese fan boy was an understatement, and a huge one at that.

Ever since the news of the dark knight reached the Dark Axis forces, Chef had originally been neutral towards the exciting gossip. Despite the fact that Talgeese hadn't been a member of the Dark Axis fleet - he was merely working underneath Deathscythe, who had been part of the Axis as an ally and not necessarily an official member - the hearsay that he was aiding in the conquering of Lacroa excited a large portion of the army. Chef hadn't minded it at first simply because he wanted to get on with his life as a soldier but, as the news of the dark knight's exploits spread, Chef had decided to take a look into whom Talgeese actually was. Beyond the fact that he was a knight helping the Dark Axis dominate Lacroa, he didn't know anything more.

To say he was disappointed with what he found was also an understatement.

What he found didn't interest him all that much at first. Just like the Dark Axis army, Talgeese had taken into attempting to dispose of the knight Gundams while Deathscythe did all the major work when it came to overpowering the region with his influence alone. As he kept reading about the knight's actual exploits in his quest to wipe out all the Gundams however, he became more and more intrigued. There were days that his best friend, Cook, had to convince him to get off the computer so that he could go recharge in his own bunk for the night. After all, there were times where Chef fell asleep reading the files on Lord T. at the console. It was not as if the knight's files were boring him - absolutely not - but constantly reading them exhausted his little Zako memory chips. It was time well spent, however. If you asked him, he could tell the names of every battle he participated in without batting an eye and on a single breath alone.

The nights that Cook managed to convince him to get some recharge, he found that it took him a very, _very_ long time to actually fall offline. Instead of thinking about the duties he was going to perform as a soldier the next day, he found his imagination and admiration drifting off to Talgeese. While he was a little Zako with about just as much importance as a single, individual bagubagu in a flock of millions, Lord Talgeese was an admirable warrior with just as much power as grace.

Chef was just as much envious as he was awed.

The Zako finally deactivated his optic with his hands behind his head while he rested in his bunk, and pasted there was a picture of Talgeese himself. Chef smiled to himself and his deep nasally voice was soft with his whisper. "Lord Talgeese is so cool."

**v**

_Cook_

He _fought_ alongside Lord Talgeese once.

Though he had not been standing directly beside the dark Lacroa knight, he had been about ten or so feet away. Cook had been stationed on the _Black Musai_ when it became the Horn of War at Lacroa's main castle, and since then he had been deployed to be a soldier on the direct battlefront while the rest of the knights were wiped out. He had even seen Lord T. up close and in person during one of those squabbles. The humans that survived the bagubagu had become desperate and they had charged the Dark Axis forces with what little strength they had left. Most of them had been knights, but the sorcerers had been a nuisance to deal with. That was when Lord Talgeese had been called in as backup. As a matter of fact, the white and golden mech had even barked orders at Cook to charge the weakening spell casting organics. Cook obeyed immediately, and all the humans had been wiped out. The powerful knight had been well known at that point but it was only when he was reassigned to a new ship - the _Magna Musai_ - that he became famous. He was a Dark Axis war hero and a legend, but Cook was still an average soldier.

_'The only thing I could ever be famous for is talking to those little mechanical rat… Things… That run around the ship at night. I must be the only one who can understand them, zako,'_ he thought to himself sitting on the edge of his bunk looking down at the Zakos below. He had the highest bunk on the far left wall towards the very back. It was late and many of the Zakos were starting to get ready for their recharge cycles.

Directly underneath his bunk, a Zako popped his head out to look at him. It was Chef. "Hey, Cook?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you tell me something cool about Lord Talgeese again?"

Cook laughed lightly and shook his head. Ever since he was reassigned to the _Magna Musai_, the only friend he made was Chef. Ironically, the mech had converted into a Talgeese fan ever since that same said knight became famous for wiping out the knight Gundams and aiding in the conquering of Lacroa. Cook sometimes wondered if it had been a bad idea to tell him that he had battled alongside Lord Talgeese. He sighed and shook his head. "I've told you hundreds of things about Lord T. already, Chef. I can't think of anything else."

Chef looked perplexed and almost disappointed. "Oh…" He looked lost for words for a moment. It looked as though he was going to dodge back inside his bunk, but then he stopped short when he saw the disappointment on Cook's face. Cook hadn't meant to look disappointed but, when he realized he was letting his dissatisfaction show on his facial plate, he quickly looked away to hide it.

_"That's all he ever wants to talk about,"_ the Zako soldier thought drearily.

Out of the corner of his optic, Cook saw Chef's face twist somewhat. If his features allowed for the movement, Cook supposed that the other mech would have been biting his lip. Chef was speaking again a moment later. "…What about the time you were on the _Black Musai_, zako? Did you see it turn into the Horn of War? Was that cool?"

Cook smiled and sighed before explaining.

He fought alongside Lord Talgeese, but he liked fighting alongside his friends so much more.

**vi**

_Cyan_

She was personally beginning to wonder why she even ever wanted to _be_ a medic.

With a deep sigh, the femme Zako sat up at her desk and she glanced around the barren medical lab. Her personal office branched off to the side in what she was almost tempted to call a separate room, but the actual medical wing was huge. In one lifetime it had been a bustling place will with activity, filled with patients and doctors and medics like herself alike, but nowadays is was void of any life aside from her own. Ever since Zapper Zaku took over as the _Magna Musai_'s head squad leader, the amounts of casualties they suffered dropped down to zero. No one ever went into the medical lab since then, and all the medical personnel were transferred off the ship. Being as young as she was however, and according to protocols that had to be followed, she remained behind. She had to always be on duty if anything ever happened.

_"It's not like anything _is _ever going to happen. Zapper Zaku does his job taking care of us Zakos maybe _too _well…"_ she thought dully. _"Gods forbid something life threateningly bad ever happens, though. One little medic-bot is not equip to deal with a serious case. The commander should at least send out for another doctor in case something does go wrong. At least I wouldn't be so lonely all down here by myself. The only ones who ever come down here to see me are Lord Destroyer and Lord Zapper and Red. They're probably the only reason I haven't gone insane from boredom down here yet, zako!"_

There was a sudden commotion outside her office in the actual lab and the femme immediately sprung to her feet. "Hello, zako?"

_"Is someone hurt? Did I just jinx myself, zako?"_

A thousand scenarios ran through her head. Maybe Zapper Zaku had gone on a mission with some Zakos and maybe one of them had been shot in the shoulder with Captain's automatic beam rifle. Maybe they were bleeding, possible going into shock from the energy and fuel loss. If that was the case, she had the automatic intake mask and IV already at hand. Then it was a matter of making sure that the soldier's fuel pump was not strained to the point of a potential failure. She at least had the shock pads, but she didn't have jumper cables in case their engine stopped.

_"Then again,_" she thought, _"I could just rewire the shock pads so that they act as jumper cables. You have to think of all the possibilities when you're the only medic."_

That was a thought that frightened her. She _was_ the only medic, and because of that there was so much pressure on her to do her job well. She was not trained as a doctor per say, but her presence on the ship meant that she was the only thing keeping a Zako from dropping dead if the occasion ever arose. Even if her place was not on the battlefield…

"My role here is just as important. Soldiers go onto the battlefield and the battlefield's spoils come to me," she muttered.

_"It's my job to protect everyone I can, even if I can't save them. That won't stop me from tying, though._"

She quickly stood and darted out of her office. "All right, what happened? What's the damage?"

The medical wing was still empty, but a single Zako soldier stood at the center of it glancing around like he had no idea where he was. At the sound of her voice, he whipped around to face her and his optic fixated on her as if he was a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. The Zako gulped and shuddered. "Uh… This isn't the storage closet, is it?" His voice was pitched and scratchy with an obnoxious sounding undertone. Was Cook his name? That was probably it.

Either way, Cyan stood there for a very long time simply staring at the Zako. Her shoulders dropped and her optic twitched. "…You were looking for the _storage closet?_"

"Erm… yeah."

"That's further down the hall," she said. The artificial adrenaline running through her valves calmed and she sighed. "You're in the medical wing."

Cook blinked almost stupidly at her. "…We _have_ a medical wing?"

Cyan facepalmed.

**vii**

_Showdown_

He had a stuttering problem. He covered it up by being a bully.

Ever since he was created for the war, there was something wrong with his voice. Vocal deformities were not considered serious enough to euthanize Zakos for - it would have been a different story if he was presently mute, or if the vocal glitch had been the product of a faulty processor - so Showdown and his stuttering were left alone and completely disregarded by the Doga Bombers at the production factory. Even though he tried to hide it at first, it still didn't stop the glitch from showing through. When he was originally assigned to the _Magna Musai_, within the first week, everyone laughed at him for it. It was not as if he could originally help it of course. Whenever he wanted to say something, he just could not force his vocalizer to spit the god damned thing out. He felt absolutely awful about it, true, but there was no fixing it. Whenever he tried to practice speaking correctly, someone usually heard him and made fun of him for it.

He could not make friends. Since no one liked him, he bitterly decided to make sure that they at least feared him.

Many of the Zakos on the ship were sensitive, so he used their shortcomings to his advantage. If he found out a Zako was afraid of heights, he would taunt and tease that Zako to the point where the poor mech would either run off in tears or avoid him completely. Showdown eventually rose in the social ranks as being the ship's number one tormenter, and his reputation earned him immediate respect among his peers. No one made fun of his stuttering after that.

Aside from his vocalizer malfunctioning, Red, a well renowned Zako who hosted the _Zako Zako Hour_, took him aside to have him join a mission he had been assigned to by Lord Zapper Zaku and Lord Grappler Gouf. "You're a good fighter, Showdown. Would you mind accompanying Blue on a special mission in eight megacycles, zako?"

Showdown nodded. "S-s-sure t-thing, Red. What're we d-d-doing?" His voice was nasally and light, like the sound of an organic speaking with a light cold. He personally liked the sound of his voice - whereas all the Zakos had the same exact look, the only thing that made them different from one another were their individual voices - but he would have _loved_ to completely kill his stammer. Stab it, kick it while it was down, axe it, kick it again for good measure, and then throw it of the side of the _Magna Musai_ into a boiling acid pit.

Red nodded. "You and the others are going to plant a bomb underneath Neotopia's main city. Pipe went ahead on a scouting patrol and reported back that there are two digging robots building a tunnel. The smaller of the two is useless, but the bigger one could get you underneath the city without detection in under ten cycles. Blue already has a control horn ready and Pipe and Boomer volunteered as well. You guys are going to be _The Special Team Neotopia Execution Force, _for whatever ungodly reason. Boomer came up with that. He also has this weird idea that the team "quote" should be _Quadra Power!_ Boomer can be a little odd sometimes, zako. Pipe is going along with it."

Boomer and Pipe were best friends who trailed one another around like lovesick puppies. If Showdown didn't know better, he'd say they were mates. They also bullied him about his stuttering, once upon a time. They didn't bother him about it nowadays though. Showdown was more than certain that they were intimidated by him. He was not the ship's unofficial tough guy for no reason. Not only was he a physiological harasser, but he was also a physical one too.

Red patted Showdown on his upper back. "You know, I almost convinced Yellow to go along with you guys. He's still afraid of you for the time you tripped him, zako. It's a shame. You're a nice really nice guy when you're not being a jerk." Red held his hand out and he braced it against Showdown's shoulder. Red was more of an acquaintance than anything else - they didn't see each other enough to be considered friends - but it was still a comforting gesture.

At hearing what he said, Showdown slunk his shoulders miserably. He was the ship's head tormenter, but that did not necessarily mean that he liked it. He was awfully lonely.

**viii**

_Storm_

The weather in the Dark Axis was frightening.

Back when the humans had populated the Axis - what they had originally called their dimension before they lost it to their robotic creations - they had cared very little for their environment. While they created huge factories to mass produce the robots that would inevitably someday conquer and destroy them, the pollution had become so bad that the skies had turned sunset gold with the smog levels. The Dark Axis had treated the environment no better when they took over, but there was not much reason for them to. Unlike the organics, they were unaffected by the negative impact of pollution. Acid rain hadn't been a problem due to the fact the landscape below was void of water to be absorbed into the clouds for showers.

Eventually, the skies went from golden to the purple that was Dark Axis trademark. The freak weather had gotten much worse.

While all the other Zakos were generally frightened senseless of the terrible tempests, Storm received her name solely for her almost unnatural interest in them. While all the other soldiers on the _Magna Musai_ hid within their bunks in the quartering hall, she personally saw to it that she got to witness the squalls first hand. She admired them not just for their sheer destructive power, but for all their poise as well. She was not a poetic Zako per say - her bondmate said she was sometimes, though she didn't think so - but she found that it was easier to admire something than fear it.

As the swirling clouds of the storm lumbered closer and closer to the _Magna Musai_, lightning streaked through the air and Storm smiled to herself.

**ix**

_Sightsee_

She was sighing at him through their bondlink. _Do you have to _always_ live up to your namesake?_

Sightsee was snapped out of his thoughts by Storm's statement. He turned his head to look for her, but he saw she was already halfway across the field of flowers. She was following behind Zapper Zaku as he led their party towards the human populated city of Neotopia. The colony's skyscraping landmark tower seemed to touch the light clouds hovering above its steel construct. It was an otherwise stunning piece of artwork in the Zako's opinion. He was not an architect or an engineer, but he understood fully that it had to have taken months - maybe even years - to build. He could not help but to admire it when their scouting party stepped out of the Zakorello gate.

Despite the fact she was not turned to face him, Storm called out to him through their bond again. She was demanding, but her tone was light and caring with a humorous undertone.

Sightsee shook his head and laughed dully to himself. He addressed his mate through their bond as he looked away from Neotopia Tower and chased after the group. _It's too bad we're probably going to end up destroying the city, zako. I would have _liked_ to do some sightseeing…_

**x**

_Wing_

He always longed to fly.

The olive green mech watched intently with his pink optic fixated on the Dogas that suddenly soared overhead in the darkening sky. A squadron of them lead by Doga Grey suddenly pivoted to the right and several of the mechs outside the formation performed a somersault as they fell back in formation behind their squad leader. All of them moved with the grace that the Zako knew damn well he lacked, but that was not what he longed to have. All he wanted was their ability to take to the skies. He envied their freedom.

The squadron suddenly pivoted again so that they flew over the Horn of War that had formed on Neotopia's landmark tower. Their flying forms disappeared behind the massive metallic monstrosity and the Zako minion sighed before turning away to follow after his comrades as they advanced on the tower's base. Their footfalls echoed on the abandoned city street and their shadows were cast out ahead of them like long black towers when a firefight between the Gundams and the Dogas broke out.

"Maybe someday," he muttered out loud to himself. His voice was pinched and low when he said it, but he almost could not hear himself over the sounds of the Doga Bombers' firing engines. "Just maybe…"


	2. Zakos 11 through 20

Zakos eleven through twenty have their stories told. Features Pipe, Boomer, Fireball, Blitz, Ebony, Joyride, Welder, Widget, Tap, and Ironride.

* * *

**i**

_Pipe_

He was a fighter.

With a cry, the Zako suddenly threw his fist and, upon collision, the punching bag swung violently forward with the blow. The chain that connected the heavy sandbag to the ceiling screeched loudly in protest to the sudden movement, and then the bag was swinging back in his direction. Pipe hissed hot air through his vents and he lifted his arm to block the blow with his shoulder guard. The sandbag collided with his side and he had to brace his knees to keep from being knocked backward. Then, with all the speed of a fired bullet, the Zako swung his other fist around so that it collided with the side of his target at the level of where an enemy's head would have been. If a Gundam had been standing in the place of the punching bag, it would have shattered the glass of his optics and blinded him. There was also the potential that he had destroyed the audio receptor on that side of their head as well. Unless his opponent happened to not rely heavily on their sight and hearing, it gave Pipe the advantage he was looking for.

With another war cry, he brought his other arm back and he gave the sandbag an uppercut. "Chew on _this!_"

Already caught in a raging spin from the last punch, the sandbag whipped around and swung back with such tremendous force that the chains squealed loud enough to momentarily startle a few of the other Zakos who had been in the training arcade with him. There weren't many, since most of the soldiers were far too busy with their own shifts to find time in their schedule to work out, but Pipe _always_ made time. He lived to fight after all. He _functioned_ for it, so it would have been blasphemy for him not to. He had to keep his skills sharp. While the other soldiers usually stuck to the shooting gallery to sharpen their aim, Pipe was one of the very, very few who stuck to physical activities. He was not a very good shot to begin with, but what he lacked with his aim was what he made up for his ability to throw punches and brawl.

The sandbag came spinning back at him and he readied his fists to throw several more punches. Unfortunately, he underestimated how quickly the sandbag had been spinning. His fist collided with it, but then the whirling target it made contact with made his arm whip sideways from where it was connected. Caught off-guard and with no means to block, he only had a moment to cry out when the sandbag collided against him with enough brute force to send him sprawling away. He flipped backward and landed on his chest with such a clatter that it garnered several distressed cries from the other soldiers who found themselves startled by the commotion.

Pipe hissed through his vents and struggled to sit up. "_Ow_… that's going to leave a mark, zako."

No more than a second later, a familiar voice cut in from above. "Pipe! Are you all right, zako!"

Pipe looked up to see Boomer, his long time friend, looking down at him with immense worry glowing behind his single optic. The other Zako was standing over him with his arms held up, almost as if he was not sure what to do with them. Pipe understood why. While Boomer wanted to help, he also knew that Pipe would not accept it. Pipe was a warrior at heart and, if he went down and couldn't help himself back up, then there was no real point in him getting up at all. It was his code, so to speak. It did not stop his friends from worrying about him though.

Pipe nodded and struggled to stand. He was somewhat off balance and his wrists hurt a little, but he was otherwise unscathed. He glanced up past Boomer's shoulders and he saw the sandbag swinging tauntingly and invitingly. "…I'm fine, zako."

He was a fighter, but that did not necessarily mean he was a good one. It was for that reason that he kept striving to be.

**ii**

_Boomer_

He was head over heels in love with his best friend.

The both of them had met when they were first thrust into the Dark Axis militia to take their posts on the _Magna Musai_. It was the first ship either of them had ever been posted to, but Pipe already had experience as a warrior due to extensive personal training. Boomer did not. Pipe had a fiery passion for fighting in general. He would frequently get into squabbles with other Zakos that often led to fistfights and that was how they first met.

Boomer had been walking up one of the many access strips of the ship to deliver paperwork to Zapper Zaku about the status of the _Magna Musai's_ mining operations - they had gravity tethers on the bottom of the ship that would bring up huge chunks of rock from the planet surface, which they had been using to mine and forage for oils that would both feed the troops and serve as fuel for the Musai - when he heard a commotion several corridors ahead. He darted up the hallway and came across a cluster of Zakos gathered around two wrestling mechs. Pipe had been one of them. Boomer could not remember the name of the other soldier he was quarrelling with - maybe it was Blitz, maybe not - but he quickly hurried on his way to Zapper Zaku's office to both deliver the paperwork and report that there was a fight.

Zapper had been less than pleased when he walked into the corridor to break up the brawl. The Zakos were quickly scattered - including one of the participants of the fight - but Pipe remained behind due to an injury that rendered his right foot useless. The headstrong mech needed to see the resident medic, so Boomer offered his services to bring him down to see her.

"Thanks," Pipe said. "That guy was asking for it, though. I guess I don't know how to say no to a good fight, ya know what I'm saying?"

"Not really, zako."

"Huh. Well then, thanks again anyways. Damn, that bugger _really_ got me good. Name's Pipe, by the way."

Boomer responded by introducing himself sheepishly.

Cyan, one of the few remaining medics on the ship seeing as the rest of them had been sent away to other Musais, had been even less than pleased to see Pipe than Zapper Zaku had been upon seeing the scuffle in the hallway. It was apparently his third visit to the medical bay because of his inability to avoid wrangles with other pigheaded, egotistical mechs. She patched up his broken foot with a crude mechanical brace and shooed him out. Pipe's optic was bright with a shit-eating grin and he half limped, half scampered away. When he was gone. Cyan turned to look at him. "Hopeless bastard. Are you his friend?"

Boomer was not sure how to respond. "Uh…"

"You know what, scratch that. I was going to ask you to keep your optic on him, but he's a pretty hopeless cause anyways." The femmebot glowered through her optic in the direction Pipe left in. "You can take the fighter out of the fight, but you _can't_ take the fight out of the fighter."

"What does that mean?"

She did not answer him. She went back into her office to attend to paperwork and Boomer left the medical bay. After rations had been served in the mess hall that evening, it was time to head to the barracks and Boomer was about ready to crawl into his sleep space when someone tapped him on the back. He turned and was met face to face with Pipe. He wanted to thank Boomer a second time and to point out that their bunks were conveniently next to one another. Boomer rubbed the back of his head timidly. "So uh… Does this mean we're friends?"

Pipe blinked. Once, twice, and then his optic lit up with a smirk. He wrapped his arm around Boomer's shoulders and he leaned against the other mech in an offhand fashion. "Eh, I don't see why not. See ya tomorrow, buddy." He let go of Boomer and went up the ladder to the bunk above Boomer's. He said nothing more. At first glance, one would have thought that their friendship would have been loose. That was Boomer's hypothesis, anyways.

His hypothesis was proved severely wrong.

For the next few months that went by, the two of them became inseparable. They tailed around with one another constantly - or rather, it was Boomer tailing around Pipe - but, whereas the constant contact they had _should_ have gotten on both of their nerves after awhile, it ended up being more helpful than irritating. Boomer found that he was able to steer Pipe away from getting into fights and, despite the fact this seemed to annoy the latter some, Boomer found that Pipe had to visit the medical wing less and less often. There were some conflicts that remained unavoidable however, like when Showdown first arrived on the ship. Pipe often harassed the new arrival for his voice stutter and Boomer, despite himself, found he was going along with Pipe's harassing just because he wanted to fit in around him. They were quickly turning away from simply being acquaintances and turning into best friends.

That was when Boomer found that he was falling in love with him.

Pipe was _everything_ he ever wanted in someone. He was strong, had a blistering spirit, and he was always filled with overflowing amounts of energy that rubbed off on Boomer some. Boomer had been a moderately hangdog mech before he met Pipe, yeah, but now he felt as though he had far more confidence in himself. Being around Pipe made him happy. It was with this revelation that he realized that he loved Pipe more than just a friend. As odd and obscure as it was to think, no matter how ridiculous it sounded to him, he was in love.

There was a shrill cry from where Pipe had been throwing punches at a punching bag. The sound echoed throughout the entire training arcade and Boomer snapped out of his daydreams to see that Pipe was struck with the target he had been hitting moments beforehand. Boomer had been watching Pipe before his mind wandered to how much he was head over heels for his best friend, but now his main concern was making sure Pipe was all right.

He was head over heels in love with his best friend. Boomer had to hope that the subject of his affections would see that someday.

**iii**

_Fireball_

Fireball was either the spunkiest femme on the ship or she had the most annoying voice in the history of Zakos. More than likely, it was both.

She was originally a transfer from the _Hellwise Musai_ who was supposed to be sent off to the _Shadow Musai_, but a hiccup in the paperwork that was incorrectly filed landed her on the _Magna Musai_ instead. Regardless of the incorrect transfer, she merely shrugged it off and decided to make herself right at home. She did so very quickly. Despite how gratingly obnoxious her voice was - high pitched with a gravelly undertone - she promptly made many friends. Her overall beaming nature and vibrant persona made her popular among the other femmes and a riot with her acquaintances. Unfortunately, what she had _there_, she lacked heavily around the other mechs. Whereas they were interested in pretty, flirtatious Zako femmes, Fireball was none of those. She was a toughie who liked to get rough with the boys and this made her unattractive to them. She was heavily ignored by potential love interests and, regardless of the fact that she was not actually interested in engaging in a relationship, it still hurt her deep down in the refines of her armor plating.

She was the single duck in the pond filled with swans.

One evening, while she was getting her nightly rations in the mess hall, she turned sharply on her heel once she had her fuel and she smacked up against another mech ahead of her. The femme let out a shrill cry and managed to catch her cube of petroleum before it fell, but the Zako whom she had collided with was not nearly as lucky. His nightly rations fell to the floor and he hissed angrily with rage. He turned to glare at her harshly with a bright, flaring pink optic. "W-w-watch it, you m-moron!"

She recognized his stutter immediately and recalled that his name was Showdown. The stumbling voice was a dead giveaway. Alarmed with the realization that he was the ship "bully" who had most recently been famous for tripping Yellow - who was now a host of the _Zako Zako Hour_ respectfully - on the engineering deck three months or so earlier, she quickly apologized. "I'm _so_ sorry," she said repentantly. Her voice was like someone with a raspy undertone on helium. She quickly handed her tray out. "You can take mine instead. I wasn't paying attention, zako."

Showdown immediately recoiled. The anger that was flickering behind his optical glass faded and it was replaced by a look of sudden surprise. "Erm… it's fine actually…" He looked away and shuffled out of the line towards an empty table towards the back of the cafeteria.

Caught off guard, Fireball stood there dumbstruck by his lack of retaliation for a whole ten seconds before another soldier, who had been standing behind her, urged her to keep moving. She snapped back to reality and walked out of line over to her usual seat. One of her closer comrades, Blue - who was also a host on the _Zako Zako Hour_ like Yellow - was another one of her friends. He beamed brightly at her when he saw her. "Hey! It looks like you faced down Showdown and won hands down back there. That was pretty impressive, zako."

Red, Blue's bondmate, grumbled beside him. He was _also_ a host on the _Zako Zako Hour_, but he did not look it currently speaking. Red was usually a vibrant and highly animated mech, but now he presently had his head face planted on the tabletop.

Fireball raised an optical ridge. "What's wrong with _him?_"

"Upset fuel tank," Blue replied. The Zako glanced back down at Red and he reached his hand up to rub the back of his bondmate's head caringly. "It's probably just a little virus. Cyan says that it should be gone by the morning. Gotta love the medic, huh Red? At least that medication she gave you seems to be working. You weren't even acknowledging people a few hours ago, zako."

Red's voice was muffled against the table, but Fireball caught him saying something along the lines of being bothered by the smell of the fuel that was in front of him. It apparently made him feel like purging his fuel tank. Blue made a slight face at that. The cube of Red's petroleum was completely untouched and Blue sighed looking at it. "I should probably take this back to the counter, zako. They could recycle it for another day."

Fireball had been preparing to take a swig of her own fuel when she caught sight of Showdown, still sitting by himself, at the back of the room. He was looking sideways away from the other Zakos without food. Realization struck Fireball and she put her drink back down. "I got a better idea. I'll talk to you later, Blue. Hope Red feels better." She took the extra cube that Red wasn't going to drink and she stood with both her fuel and the extra container. She left the table and crossed to the back of the mess hall where Showdown was. She sat directly in front of him and put the extra cube in front of him. "Here ya go. Hope this makes up for bumping into you, zako."

Showdown snapped to attention, obviously having not expected the abrupt company in his presence. He looked to her with an astonished look before he recovered and forced himself to glare at her, but then he glanced down at the offering of food in front of him. His glare faded and it was replaced by a nervous expression. He darted his optic upward to look at her. "Um… Thank you?"

"No problem, zako!" She grinned. She abruptly sat herself down in front of the other mech hoping that her cheery vibes would rub off on him. Showdown was always such a nasty Zako that she suddenly found herself hell bent on changing that. "I'm really sorry about what happened earlier. I was being a little bit of a klutz. My friends say that about me sometimes."

Showdown still looked perplexed by the fact she was attempting to interact with him. "Oh. W-well th-th-then…" He paused and looked at her expectantly.

Fireball blinked. "…Do I have something caught between my vents?"

At this, the mech sitting in front of her sputtered a little. "N-no! Nothing like that! I just…" He looked momentarily lost for words before he glanced around. When it was obvious to him no one was listening in - which was illogical, considering that no one was sitting even _remotely_ near them - he leaned forward and searched Fireball's face questioningly. "You're not going to make fun of it?"

"Make fun of what?" His question confused her.

He pointed to his face. "Th-th-_this_."

_His stutter._ Fireball shook her head and she let her optic gleam in a friendly, extravagant manner. "No. Why would I?"

"Because anyone who's nice to me usually makes fun of it later on. It's like the start to some big fat joke, zako."

_"Which makes some sense,_" she thought dismally. She remembered when Showdown was first transferred onto the _Magna Musai_ from wherever he had been stationed previously. For the first full week that he was there, he was constantly made fun of because of the minor deformity of his voice. He became increasingly bitter afterwards, always pushing back against his harassers until he became worse than his original tormenters, and that was how he earned his role of being the ship bully. His cruel behavior towards others was his defense.

Showdown spoke up again, but Fireball missed whatever he said. She asked him to repeat himself and he held his hands up apologetically. It was docile body language that Fireball would have never previously associated with him. "I-I didn't mean to make it s-sound like that. I was just asking."

"I zoned out for a nanoclick. Sorry. I didn't hear."

That seemed to comfort Showdown slightly. He hesitated obviously before speaking. "Did… Does anyone make fun of _your voice_ too, zako?"

_That_ caught Fireball off guard. She blinked once before tilting her head to the side thoughtfully. "Huh. I don't _think_ so. Mine's a malfunction too, but no one's ever _bothered_ me about it. I mean, they asked about it in the beginning. Then I guess they got used to it." She reached her hand up to rub the back of her head sheepishly. "I'm Fireball, by the way."

Showdown looked down at his drink. He lifted it up and looked at it before glancing back up at Fireball. "Showdown." He took a swig.

From then on out, Fireball and Showdown sat together in the far back of the cafeteria during meals. At least now she wasn't the single duck in the pond filled with swans now.

**iv**

_Blitz_

He ducked down low to the ground and made a swift gesture with his hand for the rest of the troops behind him to follow. They did. One by one, the Zakos moved into position behind their cover with all the stealth of the organic creatures Blitz sometimes saw in the woods that bordered the main castle of Lacroa. Wolves they were called. Now those same lupine creatures stayed far at bay with the consideration that the _Black Musai_ had long since become the Horn of War sitting on top of the Lacroa castle, and that was where the _Magna Musai_ came in. The surviving Gundams of Lacroa and the few remaining humans - mostly consisting of wizards and mages, since the peasants had not stood as much as a chance against the bagubagu that were set loose - were still putting up resistance and Nightingale, the commander of the _Black Musai_, needed assistance destroying them. Commander Sazabi of the _Magna Musai_ had offered his backing.

That was why Blitz and the group of Zakos that Zapper Zaku had left him in charge of were currently preparing to ambush a camp of mages hidden in the canyons that wound around Lacroa's castle.

The mages themselves looked oblivious to their impending doom. Many of them were men with a select few women, but there were some children hiding amongst a small fire as well. None of the humans looked armed or ready to summon magic, which was good considering that Blitz wanted to get the jump on them before they could find time to protect themselves. From the strategy Blitz organized, they would begin their attack as soon as the sun went down over the canyon wall. The gorge would be submerged in darkness, giving the currently dust-covered Zakos an extra edge with their camouflage. They would be nothing more than advancing shadows in the night when they moved forward to strike, like a pack of wolves stalking and hunting ignorant deer.

Blitz unconsciously loaded another magazine silently into his machine gun, watching intently as the human children around the campfire stood to address a woman who approached them. She looked as though she tried to urge them into the tent - undoubtedly she was their mother commanding them to go to bed - but the little brats whined until she gave into their demands and let them stay up. She left to attend to something else while the little organics cuddled around the dancing flames that were keeping them warm. Blitz snorted. It was a shame they were not going to live to be any older than they already were.

He was a brawny strategist and a warrior, one of the best next to Red. Ever since the latter had declined working towards the position of being an officer when he started up the _Zako Zako Hour_ with his two other cohorts, Blitz had kept working towards the position of officer. Zapper Zaku had already noted his potential numerous times beforehand, but leading his current team of mixed Zakos both from the _Magna Musai_ and _Black Musai_ was going to be a huge step for him towards reaching his goal. He was a husky and brawny Zako with the personality that closely resembled many famous squad leaders - many of whom later became Musai commanders - so he was deemed perfect for the job of eradicating the few human refugee campsites that lingered around the Horn of War.

Something howled in the distance. It rose over the canyon walls and the two children sitting around the campfire looked around wildly in terror. They leapt from their seats and scampered into the tent their mother had gestured to them earlier. Blitz almost could not suppress another snort of disapproval. While the wolves themselves were organics, an enemy that all Zakos pledged to destroy upon their enrolling in the Dark Axis army, Blitz was not surprised that they had survived the Dark Axis' initial invasion. They were creatures of darkness that kept to the shadows. They were calculating, devious, ravenous…

While the Zakos id not have in common with the humans, they had _far_ more in common with the wolves. Unfortunately for the human children who fled into the safety of the tent, the little organics had much, _much_ more to be afraid of than the wild canines howling to the oncoming night several miles away.

The sun descended over the cliff edge. Blitz looked back to his troops and gestured for them to advance. Darkness fell over the canyon instantaneously and the mechanical dogs of war crept forward for the kill.

**v**

_Ebony_

Without a doubt, she was the most intimidating femmebot on the _Magna Musai_.

When she first enrolled to become an engineer, many of the mech Zakos whom she had worked with never took her seriously. She was always either too small, too weak, or just too _feminine_ to become a engineering major. That was their first impression with her anyways, but she showed _them_. Ebony was the _best_ engineer in the military academy - with extreme emphasis on "best" mind you - and she blew away all the boys with her abilities to identify and consequently repair problems that rose in the technology she had to put back in working order. In fact, she even went as far as to even attempt inventing a few devices. Many of them actually worked instead of blowing up, which earned her extra brownie points around her professors and trainers. She was the top of her class with a special degree in creative repair and she graduated with flying colors. She was stationed onboard two Musais - the _Mazda Musai_ and the _Napalm Musai_ - prior to finding herself on the _Magna Musai_ under Commander Sazabi. The reaction to her presence when she was first stationed on those three ships was the same. There would _always_ be someone attempting to rain down on her parade just because she was a femme and the head of the engineering staff. Regardless, she always dealt with those party crashers efficiently and roughly.

Her first day on duty, Zapper Zaku had been leading her down to the lower mining and engineering deck to introduce her to the other Zakos down there. She was more than capable of letting herself down there alone, but the maroon squad leader insisted that he show her the way. He apparently had developed a kinship with the other Zako soldiers on the ship, acting as a sort of parental and brotherly figure towards them, and he was undoubtedly trying to establish that same sort of connection with Ebony as well since she was a new arrival. The femmebot appreciated his show of kindness since she never met a squadron leader as who behaved so benevolent around his inferiors before. She voiced her opinion of him to his person as a compliment.

Zapper snorted over the mechanical grinding of the maintenance platform elevator they were standing on. "Don't expect the others to act the same way. You may be acting as their superior while working down there with them, but the boys - and I mean the really, _really_ stubborn ones - won't hesitate to try biting your fingers off if you give them the chance. At least I can value that the femme population in the Dark Axis forces is rising again. They _won't_. A lot of them have this pent up delusion that femmes shouldn't have positions in the ranking order higher than them." Zapper made a face and continued on in a displeasured tone. "It's a shame. Back in my day when I was a Zako grunt, the amount of serving soldier femmebots was just a plentiful as the mech population. We appreciated that, what femmes lacked in strength, they made up with their intelligence."

"Of course," Ebony stated. Her voice was distinctly feminine with its light tone, but there was a distinct rasp within it.

When the lift finally stopped on the engineering sub-level, Zapper Zaku let Ebony get off alone after she insisted. He hesitated briefly before he wished her luck and activated the elevator to take him back up to the ship's main levels. The maintenance lift noisily whirred to life and ascended into the shadows and out of sight. Ebony straightened herself out and continued down the corridor herself until she eventually made it to the main working station bustling with activity. The miners already down on the station were working on extracting ores from a large clump of debris that had been brought up from the planet below while the engineers around the station were maintaining the gravity tethers keeping it in place.

A Zako caught sight of her approaching - an engineer - and he quickly jogged over to greet her. He saluted her. "Ebony ma'am, Zapper Zaku paged me about your arrival."

He did not seem prejudiced. Good. Ebony saluted back. "Excellent. Name?"

"Welder, ma'am. Designated second engineer."

Ebony flashed her optic at him in a smirk. "Perfect. I believe introductions are in order with the rest of the crew then, wouldn't you agree?"

Welder momentarily left her to announce over the loudspeakers that everyone needed to assemble on the lower deck. After five cycles of confusion and Zakos bustling about, a crowd of workers was finally at attention gathered around a mining platform where Ebony and Welder stood. Welder abruptly cleared his throat when everyone had settled down and he gestured to the femmebot beside him. "All right boys, this is Ebony. She's our new head of engineering staff. You guys on mining duty won't have to worry about her too much, but the rest of you bolt heads better give her your full attention."

Someone spoke up from the mass of gathered workers in a surly voice that stuttered. It seemed to be a vocal malfunction and not from nervousness since the speaker sounded otherwise confident when he spoke. "A f-f-_femmebot?_ Hmph. W-whatever happened to fe-femmes staying out of m-m-mechs' wor-work?"

Ebony heard the direction the sound came from and she looked down at the mech who had spoken up. _"One of the blockheaded ones,"_ she thought with amusement. The Zako who had spoken was grease encrusted from the mining work he had to endure prior to being called for the meeting, but he was glowering at her critically.

Welder was glaring at the mech who'd spoken. His tone took on a low, warning tone. "_Showdown…_"

Despite being spoken down to by a higher ranking officer, Showdown didn't seem inclined to back down. "I mean, she's a _femmebot!_ Whoever heard of a femme who majored in engineering?"

Ebony smirked cruelly to herself. She stared defiantly at Showdown.

Showdown caught sight of her silent glare and he stared back challengingly. "What are _you_ looking at?"

She _kept_ glowering.

Showdown shuffled his feet a little, realizing he had been put on the spot. "N-n-n-now come on now. D-d-don't _look_ at me like that!"

She started to tap her foot impatiently very, _very_ slowly. She started to count down in her head. Three… _two_…

Showdown threw his hands up and shielded his optic. "Okay, _okay_, I'm _sorry!_ Ju-just stop _glaring_ at me!" He immediately shut up afterward and went silent with submission.

The assorted optics of the workers who had been watching Showdown now looked back to Ebony nervously. The femmebot engineering head, satisfied that she'd made her point, simply waved the other Zakos off. "It's a pleasure to meet you all and I'm looking forward to working with you. Now…" She raised her hand and made a sharp gesture. "Get back to work! _Hustle!_ That's right, you _better_ run! I better not see that that chunk of rock has not been completely mined out by the end of the day, _zako!_"

The meeting place cleared out faster than Ebony could blink. She grinned to herself seeing the mech who had berated her being the first to flee. When everyone was back at their stations pulling their weight double time, Welder slowly looked towards Ebony with a bewildered look. He shook his head after a moment and wandered off to see to his own duties.

Ebony smiled to herself.

"It's good to be a femme," she said out loud to no on in particular. The shrill sound of drills at work was her only answer.

**vi**

_Joyride_

The Komusai shifted slightly from its place hanging upside down on the front of the _Magna Musai_. The partially sentient vessel whined irritably and Joyride narrowed his optic in mild irritation. "Hey, quit your groanin'! The sooner you stop squirmin', the sooner I can finish up with this rewirin' of yours!"

Joyride was often looked down upon by the rest of the engineering staff for one reason and one reason alone: He wasn't an _official_ engineer. He had the training to be one, true, but he'd bypassed becoming licensed only because he found that he enjoyed being a simple mechanic more than anything else. He was often berated by the others because of the fact, but the Zako mechanic shrugged them off mainly since he found that he could not have cared less about what they thought of him. He was happy the way he was, regardless of how they thought he should live his life.

Besides, he _liked_ his job.

Because he wasn't an engineer, he couldn't be entirely enrolled with the rest of the staff on the engineering deck. To compromise, Zapper Zaku assigned Joyride to become the ship's official Komosai caretaker. His daily assignments, for the most part, involved ensuring that the transport ship's fuel tank was full, that the weapons were fully loaded, and that it was in top working condition so it could be launched on a moment's notice. Joyride did his job very well for the most part, but there was another aspect of his employment that he loved most. That, for a lack of better term, was the Komusai itself.

All the Komusais in the Dark Axis fleet were programmed with a partially self-aware AI - artificial intelligence - chip that would allow the vessel to avoid missiles or enemy contact without the aid of a pilot. This technology proved to save lives for all the time the technology was used in the Dark Axis, but there was still controversy surrounding it. For one, whenever a Musai became a Horn of War, the Komusai that had been previously attached to it would be "killed" and melted down for scrap. When a new Musai was made, a new Komusai was produced as well. The previous Komusai in question could not be reused simply because it was easier to maintain a new Komusai than it was to maintain an older serving one. Many Zakos who gave actually gave a damn about the Komusais voiced their distaste for the "slaughterhouse" stationed inside the Dark Axis Fortress, but the higher ups on the ranking ladder never paid heed to their outcries of displeasure. They continued to go ahead and still melt down the Komusais who had served their masters to the best of their ability into molten slag. It was like murder.

It _was_ murder.

The _Magna Musai_'s Komusai was, to date, one of the oldest serving Komusais in the Dark Axis fleet. This was namely due to the fact that the _Magna Musai_ itself had not been involved in a dimensional takeover aside from assisting other Musais, so this was partially good news for the Komusai. Unfortunately, this gave Joyride time to bond with the silly thing. The Komusai was no more intellectual than any stupid animal, but it was _still_ fractionally intelligent. It displayed emotions, like when it grunted happily whenever seeing Joyride approaching, and just that much made the Zako mechanic look forward to getting up at the crack of dawn each and every morning.

Joyride finished rewiring the circuits he had been repairing and he replaced the metal panel to conceal it. "Good as new." He patted the underside of the Komusai where it was holstered upside down on the front of the ship.

The Komusai gurgled by rumbling its engine contently.

The Zako stood up and, with a grin lighting his optic, he tapped his foot on the ship's belly reassuringly. "I'll be back later tonight to check your fuel level. See you then." He turned to leave.

Again, the ship made a cooing sound to show it was happy.

Deep down, Joyride internally flinched. To think that the Komusai was capable of feeling emotion and making the sounds it was capable of conceiving, there was suddenly no doubt in his mind that it was also capable of feeling and expressing great amounts of pain. The mere mental image of the Komusai - _his_ Komusai - being thrown into a pool of acid to be melted down into workable scraps terrified and sickened the Zako mechanic greatly. He made a mental note to express to Zapper Zaku about possibility to keeping Commander Sazabi from sending the Komusai away to its death if they ever conquered a dimension with the _Magna Musai_.

The Komusai made a loud grunt and Joyride paused in place. He was just about to step off onto the main _Magna Musai_ deck. Joyride waited patiently before the Komusai clicked in its own language a series of times. Joyride had learned to understand it to an extent, and the pattern it used to communicate with him was easy enough to translate.

Joyride sighed and tapped his foot affectionately. "Yeah, I love you lots too."

The Komusai sighed with content.

**vii**

_Welder_

Being the _Magna Musai_'s second-in-command of the engineering staff had many advantages.

He sharply pulled his hand out from inside of the broken gravity tether's console. "_Gah!_ Son of a…"

It also had its drawbacks.

Welder usually enjoyed his job as the _Magna Musai_'s second engineer but, if there was one thing he hated more than malfunctioning equipment, it was malfunctioning equipment _and_ the fact he was not getting much help repairing the tether's broken relay beam. It was not as if Welder needed help of course - he was one of the better engineers on the ship right next to the head of engineering, Ebony - but the damage done to the relay core he was trying to repair was past a heated pipe that was running right in his line of reaching for the charred wires he had to replace. Assistance in the form of at least having someone help move some of the plating on the console's front so he could actually reach in would have been well appreciated. However, considering that he did not _have_ any help at the moment, he was left to deal with the fixing himself.

Joyride had offered to help him earlier during the day, but Welder had turned the assistance down thinking he could handle it himself.

The Zako mech pressed his burnt hand to his vents and he hissed air over the minor burn to forcibly cool it. "Damn fragging breakdowns. If this ship wasn't so damn _spectacular_, you'd think it'd fall apart at the seams with how often the mining gear faults, zako," he grumbled irritably.

The _Magna Musai_ itself was never built to specifically be a mining vessel, but the circumstances that led their commander to take a hiatus from invading dimensions had made the huge invasion ship otherwise useless. That was why Commander Sazabi had specifically ordered for mining equipment to be installed within the first week of the ship's initial launch into the Dark Axis fleet. When they were not assisting the other Musai commanders with their own invasions, the _Magna Musai_ crew found themselves temporarily turned into miners from soldiers. It was a semi-wonderful compromise seeing as they were not being mercilessly shot at - many of the Zakos onboard were newbie warriors, so they were at least spared being at the mercy of actual warfronts - but the mining deck and the equipment on it faced general failure every day. Tethers would fail and drop the ten ton load of rock they had been beaming up from the planet surface, mining tools would backfire, and sometimes they were met with no ores buried in the chunks of rock they brought up at all. It irritated Welder a great deal. He signed up to be an engineer for weapons manufacturing, _not_ mining doodads that were pretty much ineffective because of their flaws.

Despite this, the Zako engineer did his best to work around it. He refused to admit to anyone, not even the head engineer Ebony, that he was beginning to hate his job. He loved his career still, engineering and mechanics were his _life_, but he was beginning to seriously consider temporarily dropping it so he would not be forced to work on the mining level.

He was better than that. That was why he refused help from Joyride.

Joyride, the zako in question who had offered assistance to Welder, was a mechanic - not an engineer, just a standard mechanic - who specialized in repairs regarding the Komusai. He was lower than Welder on the ranking scale and there is not a Zako's chance in the _Pit_ that he was going to be caught getting help from someone lower than _he_ was. That was a sign of weakness on his part, and he refused to show weakness to _anyone_.

Speak of the devil, there was the familiar clang of footfalls on the metal grated floor as someone crossed the room over to his position. "Need any help?"

"No."

Joyride ignored him and continued waltzing on over anyways. "Ya sure?"

Welder would not even look at him. He was half tempted to ask why the other Zako was not on break, but he realized how stupid of a question that would have been. Joyride would just ask him why _he_ was not on break, being the smartass that he was. Welder had to keep his voice in check so it would not rise with his irritation. "Positive. It's just taking longer because I can't reach the wiring. Looks like it was overheated and shot to scrap when we took that big chunk up from the planet."

Joyride whistled. Welder felt the other mech's presence when the mechanic knelt beside him beside him. "Wouldn't it just be easier to move the platin' in front?"

"Can't. I don't have the equipment."

"I do."

"I didn't ask for your help."

Out of the corner of his vision, he saw Joyride put his hands up. "I'm not trying to steal your thunder or anythin' like that, zako. Just that Ebony's a little ticked off. You know, she was on her way down here to yell at you for not getting' the repairs done yet. I told her you went up to storage to get repairs tools, so she's on her way up there right now instead."

Welder snapped to attention and he looked up at Joyride. "…Are you trying to say that you covered for me?"

Joyride looked a little bewildered by the nature of the address aimed towards him. He cocked his head to the side in curiosity. "Well, _yeah_, zako. Why wouldn't I? I mean, I know you don't like me and all that, but hey. Better to make baby steps, right? 'Sides, I kinda look up to you, ya know?"

Welder _hadn't_ known. In fact, he previously never had the slightest idea. Feeling perplexed himself, he blinked and turned away to regard the console in front of him. The second engineer paused thoughtfully before speaking again. "Well… Thank you. I do appreciate it. Although, we don't have a power wrench to remove the bolts from the-"

"Already covered," Joyride beamed. He reached into his subspace pocket and pulled up a small drill.

They got the job done in five minutes. The relay was up and working again in no time, and Welder figured that maybe he _did_ need some help every once in awhile. The best part was that he did not mind it anymore.

**viii**

_Widget_

She was an optimistic, cheerful femme who always brought life to everyone she was around. She was also a writer.

It was only natural that she became good friends with Zakos like Fireball, but then there was the fact she was a total riot at the _Zako Zako Hour_ that Red, Blue and Yellow hosted every other night. She had always be the loudest voice cheering in the crowd. _Always_. People occasionally complained about it, but Widget shrugged them off like dust. The _Magna Musai_ Zakos were not nearly as frightening or threatening as the Zakos from the ship she had been previously stationed on. The warriors of the _Fallen Musai_ used to _never_ put up with her highly positive attitude. They took their jobs very seriously and, seeing as Widget was constantly smiling and radiating a welcoming sense of heat, they were irritated with her constantly. That was a contributing factor as to why she was sent away by the _Fallen Musai_ squad leaders when it was deemed she would be far more useful on another vessel. Subsequent of this, she found herself on the _Magna Musai_.

Still, serving on the _Fallen Musai_ had changed her life.

While serving part of her soldier career on the _Fallen Musai_, Commander Krieger had an entire library's worth of documents dating back as far as the Dark Axis' beginnings. Some of the databooks were probably even documented by the humans that once dominated the Axis. Regardless, they were all there and they fascinated her greatly. Grunts actually were not supposed to touch them, but she managed to smuggle a few away from the library without being caught. Best of all, she was able to indulge herself in their words for hours on end. She did not have many duties mainly because no one would let her partake in them - she was supposedly useless, after all - and one of the afternoons she spent reading one of the databooks back inside of her personal bunk changed her outlook on life. It was a document written by a Zako grunt who eventually became a squad leader. _That_ Zako's horrific tales of the warfront he had to endure intrigued the femmebot a great deal.

It was then that she decided to become a writer. She wanted to write something similar. Something that would be remembered.

She was writing even after she was shipped off the _Fallen Musai_. That part of her life just ended up being written as one of the many chapters. The entire book was an autobiography on the life she had being a grunt Zako but, unlike the databook that inspired her, what she was writing was certainly _far_ from dreary. Whereas the autobiography she read was dismal and terrifying with the horrors and gores of war, her optimistic personality led her to take a different direction in her writings.

At their place sitting at the table, Fireball and Yellow were exchanging looks. Finally, Yellow looked at Widget with a perplexed expression. "_Please_ tell me you're joking, zako."

Widget was grinning like a loon. "Nope."

For once, it was oddly quiet in the cafeteria. This was mainly because there was a good chunk of Zakos who were still working down on the engineering and mining sub-levels. There had been a minor accident where one of the gravity tethers failed and a fair amount of the staff was needed to assist repairing and refastening the chunk of ores they had brought up from the planet that the Dark Axis consisted of. Consequently, this left the cafeteria barren and quiet.

Not for long.

Fireball covered her optic. "I'm usually all up for this kind of stuff when I'm drunk and don't know better, but whatever. Go nuts."

"I can't watch this," Yellow muttered. He face planted his forehead against the surface of the table and he vainly pretended not to acknowledge Widget.

With that, Widget whooped happily. Without further ado, she leapt up onto the table and made such a commotion that everyone who was present in the mess hall snapped their heads around on their shoulders to look at her with confusion. Seeing that she had most of everyone's attention, she threw her arms into the air, forced her body backward, and she did a back flip right there on the table. She landed unsteadily on her feet and she was momentarily worried that it might collapse underneath her, but it held fast and, pretending as if nothing had happened, she quickly scrambled back down into her seat grinning.

_"Can't wait to write about this tonight,"_ she thought cheerily.

**ix**

_Tap_

He was created deaf.

"Imperfects" were forged out of one in every one hundred and twenty Zakos manufactured. Zakos who were spark born, being that they were created and raised by parents, were far less likely to be created with a deformation than those Zakos created on assembly lines. Considering that parent raised Zakos - Lord Zapper, as an example, actually had a mother and father - were becoming rarer and rarer, it was only Tap's luck that he was forged on a industrial line.

Also his luck, he was also one out of one hundred and twenty Zakos. An _"imperfect"_ as they were called.

Something had gone wrong when the audio receptors were being installed inside his head. They were installed, yes, but the wiring within his processor that communicated with his audio receptors was permanently shot. His first moments of life when he was finally activated were entirely silent. He presumed at first that everything was _supposed_ to be silent, but then he saw the other newborn Zako soldiers around him with their vents moving in conversations and how some of the Zakos, when addressed, were able to respond back. Tap _couldn't_. He ran a system diagnosis and identified the problem, but he knew that there was nothing he could do to help it. The damage was permanent. Several curious Zakos approached him to attempt communication, but he merely kept his vocalizer offline in hopes that they would hope that he was merely shy. The true reason he kept quiet was because he could not understand what anyone was trying to say to him.

One out of every one hundred and twenty Zakos manufactured were created with a deformation, but only one in every ten Zakos with that deformation actually survived long enough to escape being terminated. The batch of Zakos that Tap had been created with also had another deformed Zako within it. He was blind. The Doga soldiers who had been overlooking the newly created Zakos immediately picked him out from the rest of the small crowd and they roughly grabbed him by both arms and forced him to the ground. The newborn Zakos scattered in terror when one of the three Dogas pulled out a handgun from her subspace pocked and unloaded ten rounds into the poor unsuspecting mech's head. His body twitched and the oil pooling from the dead mech's destroyed helm wafted a horrid scent across the entire room. That much _alone_ sent the already panicked Zakos into hysteria, Tap included, but then the Dogas seemingly threatened the newborns to settle down with some barking retort. The Zakos went silent again, just like Tap. They all watched as the dead Zako was dragged from the room and the mess from his murder was cleaned.

They called it mercy killing, claiming that it would be better to put malformed Zakos out of their misery, but Tap was absolutely horrified that he would be next. He wanted to _live_. He _didn't_ want to die.

By some sort of crude and sheer miracle alone, he managed to survive death at the hands of euthanasia. No one suspected he was deaf. The uncaring Dogas and higher ranking Zakos merely brushed him off as the quiet type - they knew he was not mute, another kind of deformity, since he managed several frightened squeaks of terror whenever he was addressed by other soldiers - and that was the sole reason he lived to be sent off to the _Magna Musai_. He sat quietly onboard with the other Zakos also being sent to the Dark Axis' head ship, and he stayed quiet even when their new squad leader, Zapper Zaku, welcomed them onboard. The new batch of soldiers - there were ten of them total, Tap being one of them - were settled in that night and they all got up to report to the mess hall the next morning.

Tap was sitting by himself when a femmebot came over to address him. He did not recognize her and he kept his head downcast when she sat in front of him. He felt the air still and the way the air vibrated around him. He did not look up at her even though he knew she was talking to him.

The femme did not leave. A sheet of paper was suddenly thrust in front of him instead. Written on it was, _"Hi! My name's Widget! Are you shy?"_

Tap snapped to attention and looked the grinning femme in the face. She seemed eerily cheerful. The friendly type, no doubt. She must have seen him sitting alone and thought that she would give him company. Tap made the mental note to sit closer to other soldiers next time of avoid sticking out as painfully as he had, but he was slightly perplexed at how she did not seem upset over the fact he was otherwise ignoring her. Most other Zakos who addressed him were usually ticked that he was seemingly pretending to not hear them… Of course, he could not hear them to begin with, but they did not know that.

If they ever found out - if _anyone_ ever found out - it would be the death of him.

Widget, the femme, suddenly handed him the pen that she had written with. She cocked her head to the side and blinked oddly. It was a wink. Hesitantly, Tap took the pen and wrote on the paper. He might have been deaf, but he still at least had the ability to write. He handed it back. _"Yes. Very."_

Widget nodded. Her grin had faded a little, but she was still smiling in a friendly manner. She took the pen and wrote on the pad. _"It's okay. I was shy too when I first got sent here. I was from the Fallen Musai. Commander Krieger was nice and all, but the squad leaders were awfully mean. I like Zapper Zaku. He's nicer than most squadron leaders, you know? It's like he actually gives a damn. Do you like Zapper Zaku?"_

The femme was either overly optimistic or trying to forcibly make him uncomfortable. Granted that she seemed simple minded and plainly friendly, he guessed it was the prior. He wrote on the pad and pushed it back to her across the surface of the table. _"Yeah, I guess so."_

She nodded at him and went on writing before handing the sheet back for him to read. _"Do you have a name?"_

_"Tap."_ The names of grunts were mostly unimportant in the optics of the higher ups in the Dark Axis army. Most Zakos who were parent born were created with names, but the factory produced Zakos did not have that luxury. Instead, they had to name _themselves_. Tap, of course, had not bothered to title himself up until that exact point because he never suspected he would live long enough to ever decide on one. That and there would have been no way for him to let anyone know what his name actually was. Now that he suddenly found himself put on the spot, he randomly wrote the first thing that came to mind. He did not think highly of "Tap" at first, but then he realized that he liked it immensely. It was _his_ name. He did not have his hearing, but he at least had that much.

_"Neat!"_ That was Widget's response. Their conversation continued on for quite sometime.

As time went on, Widget continued to sit with him in the mess hall during rations time in the morning and evening. In fact, she even visited his bunk before everyone would go into recharge. To match his silence, she wrote him notes to say hello, good evening, and so on. It eventually piqued Tap's curiosity to know why she always kept a pad and paper with her wherever she went, and she responded in a letter saying that she wanted to publish an autobiography someday about the lives that grunt soldiers in the Dark Axis had to live. She already had at least a year's worth of writings and logs stowed away in her bunk. She eventually offered to show it to Tap and, upon its revelation to him, he was speechless. Her writing was impressive and equally descriptive.

She suddenly handed him a note. _"Why are you always so quiet? I've known you for awhile now, but you haven't said as much as a peep since the day I first met you! You can't_ possibly _be shy anymore. What's wrong?"_

For the first time in his entire life, he considered telling someone about his malformation. He found that he trusted Widget, true, but he was also terrified at the prospect that she would not understand his plight and the constant fear he had to live in. Widget suddenly wrote him another note asking why he was shaking. Tap found that he could not write back right away. Finally, with a shaking hand, he took the pen and scribbled down onto the pad in small, barely legible letters.

_"I'm deaf."_

She looked slightly disbelieving at first. He took the paper from her loose grip and he tore it up into so many tiny pieces that no one would ever have the hope of piecing them back together to form what he had written. He was shaking badly from horror. Widget tried to ease his tension by writing letters to him but he was far too preoccupied visualizing the blind mech who he saw shot to death on the day he was created. He saw himself in the dead mech's place and he even had nightmares about it when he went into a tense, near sleepless recharge that same evening.

The following morning, Widget was not at their usual table ready to refuel and trade notes with him. That much _alone_ almost sent the paranoid Zako into hysteria, but then a firm hand grabbed him from behind and he turned to see Widget standing there not making eye contact with him. She dragged him along out of the cafeteria down several corridors until they reached a particularly dark hallway. When they reached the door at the end of it, Widget entered a code and the automatic door hissed open. She pushed Tap inside.

Seated at a desk was Zapper Zaku. There was a strange look on the squadron leader's face.

Tap had a nervous breakdown. He dropped his fuel and reeled backwards in a desperate attempt to escape. He could have easily overpowered Widget if Zapper Zaku was not there. He had almost gotten out the door when the large squad leader grabbed him by his scruff plating and lifted him right off the ground with little effort. Then he held onto the smaller mech fast while Widget locked the door so there would not be any means of escape without Zapper Zaku giving the door an access codec to open again. Finally, after Tap exhausted himself, he slumped in on himself with defeat and he sobbed. That much alone was the most noise he had ever made since being created. He thought he felt the air behind his head vibrate when Zapper tried to speak, but then the squad leader stopped himself with the realization that Tap would not be able to hear him. Finally, Zapper set him down in one of the chairs facing his desk. Widget took the chair beside Tap.

Zapper sat down at his desk and regarded both robots lightly. He suddenly looked on his desk, picked up a pen, and started to write on one of the papers that had been placed there. Tap was convinced that it was a death certificate. After Zapper Zaku filled it out, both he and Widget would escort the malfunctioned Zako out onto the main deck where they shoot him point-blank in the back of the head. Tap figured that, at most, he had less than ten cycles to live. He started to bawl again.

Zapper glanced up at him before looking at Widget. From what Tap could see, the femmebot was looking downcast at her own feet. She was either very interested in the ground or very guilt-ridden. Tap guessed it was the latter. Regardless, Zapper Zaku finished with the paperwork on the table.

Then he did something that completely threw Tap off for a loop.

Zapper Zaku held the paper up. It was completely blank and void of print regarding exterminating Zakos with deformities, but there was still writing scrawled on it. The hand wiring was decent, but it took Tap a few tries at reading it to understand what it meant. _"So, what are we going to do about you?"_

Tap blinked. Once, twice, three times. There were still fresh tears threatening to spill from his misted-over optic.

Zapper Zaku's shoulders shook with a light, sheepish chuckle. He put the paper back down and wrote more. That was when Tap realized that the strange and placid look on the squad leader's face was, in fact, _sympathy_. The maroon warrior held the paper back up with the new words written across it. _"Widget came in here the other day to let me know she was worried about you being caught and terminated because of your malformation. She told me only because she knew that I would never let you or anyone else on this ship be subject to mercy killing. Pitt knows that I hate that policy more than anyone else. How long have you kept this a secret?"_

Zapper Zaku handed the paper to Tap. Tap, after a long time hesitating, finally took the paper and pen with trembling fingers. He slid the paper back across the table when he was done. _"Since I was created."_

Zapper's optic flashed. He wrote and showed Tap the paper. _"That's impressive. Anyways, we'd better get to work. I've already given you two special leave to stay here with me for the rest of the day. If Commander Sazabi ever assigns another squad leader to this ship, they won't hesitate to have you exterminated unless we can pass you off as not having a deformity. So, do you know how to read mouthpieces?"_

Both Widget and Zapper Zaku worked tirelessly all day with Tap to get him to learn how to read expressions. Zapper Zaku would pronounce something simple and make his motions articulating his vents obvious so Tap could memorize the movements. Eventually, the squad leader was able to talk full sentences and Tap was able to repeat what the older mech had said by writing it down on paper. Finally, after several hours of work, it was getting late and Tap's fuel tank was tight from hunger. He had spilt his drink from the morning so he never got to eat, and he was starving.

Zapper Zaku laughed. He was speaking and Tap was able to read his vents and understand exactly what he said. "You and Widget better go down and get your meals. I'll call them to let you have two cubes instead of one." The squad leader laughed heartily. "You can come back up tomorrow to work on talking if you'd like. Then we can come up with some kind of sign language you can use…" Before they could turn to leave, he spoke up again. "Soldier?"

Tap looked to Zapper. His optic had long since dried - he had finally calmed down and stopped crying over the course of the several hours he spent in the squad leader's office so he was not afraid of imminent termination anymore - and he found that he was more confident than ever. Regardless, he watched Zapper's mouthpiece to read what he was saying.

Zapper's optic lit up with a grin. "There are ten others on this ship. Don't feel like you're the only one…" The squad leader winked at him and, very discreetly, the maroon warrior tapped the side of his helmet with his index finger. Whether or not he was trying to gesture to his own being, Tap was unable to determine.

Both Widget and Tap left his workspace in silence. Halfway to the cafeteria, Widget cut in front of him. She looked about ready to bawl. "Tap, I'm so, _so_ sorry I scared you. I… I was just so afraid that something would happen to you if I didn't do _something_. If someone else other than me had found out, well, they'd panic and report you without knowing what they were doing. Zapper would have had no choice _but_ to kill you. You could have _died_… you're my friend, Tap. I couldn't let anything bad happen to you _ever_. Please, _please_ forgive me." At this, she furiously wiped at her optic to keep from bawling. She was shaking all over.

Whereas Tap had felt betrayed earlier in the day due to her treachery, hearing that she had done it in favor of his safety touched him dearly. He reached out and clasped her shoulders tightly before he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight. He hesitated briefly before he cleared his throat. He could not hear himself speak, but there was more to life than just sound alone.

"Thank you."

**x**

_Ironride_

He had seen so much action and death in his entire life, he lost count of the battles and casualties he had witnessed.

He was first enrolled into the Dark Axis army to serve on the _Fogworld Musai_, the sister ship of the _Otherworld Musai_ once commanded by the great Commander Tetra before he had been assassinated by a sniper Gundam. That had been over one thousand years earlier, well before Commander Sazabi's or even Zapper Zaku's time. Ironride himself was just a little under ninety years old. He had been transferred to live on over thirty different Musais in his lifetime, and he was half certain he had seen more Zakos die on battlefronts than he could remember their names. It was a frightening prospect that he was so old and that he saw so much. Why he himself had not died at the unforgiving hands of enemies as of yet, he was unsure. It was more than likely a fluke of sorts.

"…So _then_ what happened, zako?"

This also meant the whippersnappers were constantly mauling him with countless questions regarding the war and what he had seen over his time.

Ironride sighed. Currently, he was seated beside a Zako - his name was Sightsee, if memory served the older bot to the best of its frail ability - while they sat in the Komusai on its way to a world they were in the process of invading. It bothered Ironride somewhat that he could remember that the world's name was Neotopia but he could not retain the name of the Zako he was speaking to. Sighing, the older Zako rubbed the brow of his helm and he glanced sideways at the far younger mech. He recalled the story that he was telling the wide-eyed Zako beforehand and he resumed. "That was when the _Ordinance Musai_ became the Horn of War in Polyhex. There were a few hundred Gundams who charged us in a final attempt to thwart our victory, but we and the Doga soldiers stopped them dead on the spot. The mines we set up underneath their feet sent them sky high, zako zako."

Sightsee's optic was wide in awe. Hesitantly, the younger mech gripped the bagubagu dispenser he was armed with closer to his torso. "Will that happen to us when the _Magna Musai_ eventually prepares to become a Horn of War in Neotopia?"

"I'd assume so," Ironride said. He liked the younger Zakos to an extent, although their naivety irked him somewhat. Sightsee was certainly no exception.

His prior statement suddenly disturbed him. He recalled all the battles he had fought in, where the people he once knew and did not know died, and he momentarily wondered if Sightsee would be another one of those nameless casualties that would sooner be a blip in his memory core than an actual person. Abruptly, over the sound of Zapper Zaku grumbling to himself about Grappler Gouf - the _Magna Musai_'s new secondary squad leader being in control of their current mission - Ironride realized that he was maybe older than he originally thought. War _aged_ soldiers. If it did not take away your life, it forcibly stole away your youth.

_"And let's hope," _Ironride thought dismally to himself, _"that poor mechs like Sightsee don't age as quickly as I did. You're only young once, zako__."_


	3. Zakos 21 through 30

Zakos twenty-one through thirty have their stories told. Features Clang, Gadget, Barley, Zoom, Jaggar, Pickaxe, Meta, Tally, Lure, and Guarder.

* * *

**i**

_Clang_

He was bored out of his _mind_.

If there was anything that could have been learned from him, it was that younger Zako soldiers had absolutely _no_ attention span whatsoever. In fact, it was a well known fact that Clang was perhaps the _best_ example of that truth on the _Magna Musai_. It was not entirely his fault, of course. He had been built for battle and war. Mining operations and the skills orientated with its practice were not in his programming, but it was just his luck that the ship was inactive in dimensional takeover activity. Consequently, with the added factor that the _Magna Musai_'s crew was the largest in the entire Dark Axis invasion fleet, excessive mining was the only way they could sustain themselves during their commander's conquest hiatus. The soldiers found themselves turned temporarily into workers and, with the added factor that young Zakos as a whole were very scatterbrained and awful at paying attention to something for more than ten seconds, Clang found that his job had become very boring very quickly.

Fireball, one of the femmebots sitting at the main control station, addressed him in her raspy helium voice. "Keep sharp, zako. Ebony will _freak_ if we drop this load."

Except he found that _"__keeping sharp__"_ was far easier said than done. He dully acknowledged her and mechanically followed through with the standard procedure without really thinking. He radioed the crew working with the tethers in the mining bay to check for the okay to proceed and they responded back with a positive. Clang shared his finding with the other crewmembers working in the control room that they were set to go and the others double checked. Clang entered the codec at his console and gave Fireball the okay to continue on with the final operation phase. Fireball hesitated.

"Did you double check the weight of the load and the strength of the beams?" That was Widget. She was at the console directly beside him. She usually conversed lightly with the ever silent Tap who sat on her other flank, but the usually quiet Zako was out for the day with a minor fuel tank bug. Whereas Tap was usually in charge of double checking the weight of the load and strength of the tractor beams, Clag had been put in his place instead.

The young Zako turned to look at her. His voice was light and airy, but saturated with unquestionable boredom. "I did," he said. It was a lie of course, but there was never a malfunction with the beams or their strength _ever_. It was just another ridiculously boring chore to him, and he could not even _minutely_ fathom that something would go wrong.

Widget nodded trustingly in his direction, then turned to look at Fireball at the main control station behind them. The two femmebots regarded one another for a brief moment before Fireball nodded in consent and radioed the mining crew to start the procedure. They did. The low whirr of the beams starting to pull up the load resonated through the control room and mining bay just beyond the observation window they overlooked, and the steadily rising rumble of the planet chunk ripping away from the ground below the _Magna Musai_ began to build. Eventually, the grumbling died away and the entire ship seemed to waver very, _very_ slightly. The extraction was underway and going on track as flawlessly as expected.

Clang leaned back in his seat and deactivated his optic, pleased.

The entire ship _jerked_, violently enough so that Clang was sharply thrown out of his seat. Out of the corner of his vision, he saw Widget wrench forward in her chair and accidentally smash her head on her console with enough force to make him cringe. The lighting switched from the standard overhead lights to the blazing red emergency bulbs that flashed alarmingly, and the ship-wide emergency siren blared off with enough strength to momentarily deafen the young Zako. Clang snapped to attention and tried to scramble to his feet, but another tremor rocked the ground too unevenly for him to regain his footing. He looked around the room. Zakos, left and right, were either splayed haphazardly on the ground or just barely managing to sit erect in their seats by desperately clinging to the consoles. One of them was Widget. Sporting a nasty looking dent in the side of her helmet, she frantically looked at the controls and glanced over her shoulder toward Fireball. "Slaggit, we have _huge_ problems! One of the tethers just gave way and we lost power to the _Magna Musai_'s second front antigravs! The load is pulling us _down!_"

Someone else in the room cursed loudly. It was Blue. The _Zako Zako Hour_ co-host was standing by a monitor and his voice had turned into a panicked screech. "_Holy SMELT! Sixty clicks to impact, zako!_"

Clang's mind reeled. His day just got a _whole_ lot less boring.

**ii**

_Gadget_

The rain was coming down _hard_.

"_Move it!_ Go, go, _go!_" Gadget waved his arm in a wild gesture for the mass of fleeing Zakos to continue their retreat. The rain was not helping in the slightest. Some of the frightened Zakos sipped in the mud as they ran and one of them even managed to fall on his side and slide ahead several feet before he could regain his footing and resume his run. Another, this one a femme, fell and could not get back up. Gadget grabbed her by the arm and hauled her roughly back up onto to her feet before shoving her towards the rest of the fleeing crowd. She glanced on him briefly before vanishing into the chaos. He could not tell who either soldier was. The mud caked on their armor made even his comrades unrecognizable to him.

The rain was falling hard, yes, but the whole invasion was collapsing around them even harder. Both figuratively _and_ literally. Somewhere out of his line of vision, he saw another thorn off the _Magna Musai_ Horn of War break away from the main stem and tumble down to the ground. A thunderous crash marked its impact and final resting place.

As soon as Commander Sazabi's energy signature had vanished from their radar - along with the four Zako soldiers who had been sent to the top of the Horn of War to secretly monitor his wellbeing during his battle against Captain Gundam - the entire top portion of the Horn of War exploded. Then the tower itself began to collapse. Although the details were garbled, Gadget heard that were at least seven dozen casualties on their side alone, and that at least ten soldiers had been crushed by falling debris. This did not account for anyone reported missing, either. He desperately hoped that this was false, but it was difficult to hold onto any shred of hope when the Horn was falling apart around them. Where the takeover mission had fallen to shambles, the thorny construct was in shambles as well. Another branch collapsed not too far away. The ground shook with the tremor that followed. Their retreat was as hasty as it was organized. Ever since the Gundam Force started to close in, the Zakos found that their only means of escape was through an underground passage entryway at the base of Neotopia's main tower. Not having any loaded weapons to defend themselves with made the grave situation all the more deadly.

Red called out to him somewhere at the mouth of the underground entrance. His usually bright voice had a barely controlled edge of hysteria lining its tone. "_Gadge!_ Gadget, get your tailpipe _over here!_ Come on, the Gundams are coming!"

True to their temporary leader's statement, they _were_. Over the sounds of the collapsing Horn of War, the steady gunfire and imperial footfalls of the Gundam Force and their allies marching towards them rose above the pandemonium and heavy rain. Gadget cursed crudely realizing how _close_ they had to be. They were rapidly running out of time.

Ahead of him, a Zako soldier leapt over a slab of fallen Horn debris and landed awkwardly in the churned mud. With a cry, she slipped and flipped forward onto her back unmoving. Lightning flashed brilliantly over their heads and the light illuminated her down form so that the armor was momentarily alit white instead of green.

Gadget cursed again and rushed forward to retrieve her. Now he could clearly hear someone shouting somewhere further ahead. It sounded like someone - Guneagle maybe - was giving orders to open fire. Gunfire resumed. There were several agonized screams and short shouts that were suddenly cut off. Someone started crying. They were _killing_ Zakos. They were _murdering_ his comrades.

His _friends_.

"Screw that," Gadget said out loud to himself bitterly. He was at least a dozen or so feet from the down Zako and he skidded to a stop in front of her. Dropping to his knees, he roughly shook her by the shoulders. "Hey! C'mon, you gotta get up! _Move it!_"

She tilted her neck back fuzzily, cranking her head up to blearily look at him. Despite the heavily falling precipitation that slightly obscured his vision, he could tell that the femmebot was Barley. It was the first of the fleeing crowd whom he could distinguish through the grime and thick mud. Her face was badly scuffed and there was a deep crack running across the expanse of her tear stung optic. Whether or not her crying was from pain or the graveness of their situation, he could not be sure. Her voice was hoarse from yelling. _"Gadget?"_

He nodded eagerly, grabbing at her arm. "Yeah, it's me. Now get up!" He gave a quick tug and the femmebot hastily scrambled to her feet. She nearly fell forward on her face again when the churned mud caused her footing to slip, but he caught her underneath the arms and pushed her towards the direction of the now thinning stampede. Finding her feet, she stumbled a few feet away and looked over her shoulder at him. Gadget turned to look. The distinct blackness of an energy burn seared her side, indicating that she had been shot with a low powered laser handgun by either one of the many advancing Dimensional Guard GMs or a Gundam. She had been very lucky that the blast had only nicked her instead of hitting her dead on, or else she would have been seriously hurt. He still had to commend her for her ability to ignore the sheer amount of pain it was undoubtedly causing her, though.

She was still looking at him, silently pleading for him to follow her.

He waved her off. "Just _go!_ I'll catch up!"

Her face twisted disbelievingly - it was a look of nothing but utter hopelessness - but she relented and turned to run without further argument. Mud and filthy rainwater was kicked up by her footfalls as she ran for the mouth of the underground tunnel. Almost dazedly, Gadget watched as her form began to recede against the crowd of the rest of the fleeing Zakos. Lightning flashed overhead. The bolt cut across the sky like an awful slash of luminescence that had no benevolence within its glare at all. Then thunder followed.

Except _that_ wasn't thunder.

_Agony._

It ripped up his chest and then shot down to his legs almost instantaneously. The strength in his legs gave out from underneath him and he fell heavily. He could not tell when he hit the ground exactly, but he couldn't have cared less for it. A mighty wail broke free from his vocalizer the moment the energy blast from Guneagle's beam rifle hit him square in the upper shoulder while his back was turned. The Gundam had shot him in the back. At the mouth of the underground entrance, he thought he heard several horrified screams. He could not be sure. His hearing, as well as the rest of his senses - his sight, his feeling, _everything_ - was swimming in a void of uncertainty and dizziness. And exhaustion.

He looked up blearily. The once tremendous pain was starting to fade into an unrelenting numbness and his vision was already starting to go, but he swore that he could still see Barley. Stupidly, he thought that with soldiers like her to live on, there was still hope for the Dark Axis after all.

_"For the future of the Dark Axis,"_ he tried to say. His vocalizer had welled up with the oil and coolant from his rapidly bleeding internals to make the feat impossible, but that did not stop him from mouthing it. He smiled devilishly as he watched the feet of the carelessly ruthless Gundams marching past.

All he could do was offline his optic and let the water pounding against his frame lull him to sleep. The rain was still coming down hard.

**iii**

_Barley_

It was her first time serving in an invasion.

She was not nearly as incessant as the other younger Zakos, which often left the impression on others that she was not very young all. There had been some brief confusion about her actual age when she was transferred to the _Magna Musai_ from the factory she was produced at because her paperwork had not come through right away. The medic responsible for her first physical, Cyan, had been stumped as to the Zako's age without that same paperwork. The younger soldiers were usually very rambunctious and, granted that Barley did not fit the initial bill for being a rambunctiously childish soldier, the medical officer had to ask. When Barley responded that she was only recently made, Cyan did not initially believe her. It was only after the paperwork was sent to her that she came to terms with Barley's age.

Also unlike the other younger Zakos, she was not worried or apprehensive about participating in an invasion for the first time so early in her life.

Her first day on the _Magna Musai_ was the same day that Commander Sazabi announced that he was no longer on his invasion hiatus, and therefore planning to engage in a dimensional takeover very soon. A week or so later, news came that General Zeong already had a dimension assigned to the Dark Axis' top commander. As it was disclosed to them, the rest of the Zako soldiers learned that the world was called Neotopia. It was a supposedly peaceful place that would be an easy and mostly defenseless target, but many of the younger troops were still uneasy with the change of pace. Most of them were not comfortable with the thought of going into a war that posed even the slighted chance of injury or conflict, but Barley was certainly not one of them. War did not bother her. Fighting did not scare her. Killing would be easy.

Just ten minutes before she and the rest of Zapper Zaku's selected team were scheduled to board the Komusai for their target, Gadget approached her. The Zako soldier had become a loose friend of hers in the first weeks that she was sent to the _Magna Musai_, and there was a very distinct look of worry in his optic. He was holding his weapon with slightly unsteady hands. "You all right, Barley?"

She looked at him and raised a corner of her optical lens. "Are you?"

"Guess not," he said sheepishly. He looked down at her machinegun - something that she was holding with hands much more steady than he - and he laughed dryly. "The last invasion I participated in didn't go over so well. There were… a lot of casualties during Commander Galbaldy's _Shonen Musai_ invasion. A lot of people I knew didn't make it to see the end of the war." The Zako shrugged, attempting to shove the morbid thoughts aside. "We're bound to lose some guys during this invasion. Maybe not during _this_ mission, but maybe another one. War has a tendency to kill people."

She mostly ignored him, unable to come to terms with how violent the invasion could be. After all, it was already expressed to her that Neotopia was a world with no defenses. As far as she was concerned, the dimension wouldn't be able to help themselves if a giant butterfly did so much as sat on their city. How could they pose a threat? She dismissed the thought entirely when they all boarded the Komusai once debriefed by Zapper Zaku.

They made it to Neotopia, but arrived at the wrong coordinates due to an instrumentation failure. Instead of landing in the city, they ended up in a field of flowers. The femmebot decided that Gadget had _definitely_ been wrong. There might have been many horrors to the wars _he_ fought, but there were none in hers.

That was until the two law enforcement units arrived.

After they landed in the field of flowers, the irritated Zapper Zaku barked at them the order to scatter the bagubagu. They retrieved the twelve canisters from the Komusai - Barley with one of them - and they released the swarms of mecha insects on the field of flowers. The bagubagu themselves were nastily aggressive, but they at least did their job perfectly when it came to petrifying the flowers in the meadow. By the time all the canisters were empty, it was around then that the sound of someone speaking through a loudspeaker alerted them to the arrival of newcomers.

The attention of the Axians, Barley included, went immediately to the two automatons that had entered the field just several yards left of the parked Komusai. The taller of the two robots, a bipedal mech, was speaking into a microphone attached to the loudspeaker mounted on his ball shaped cohort. Barley caught sight of the two robots and mentally chortled to herself. The two automatons were obviously law enforcement if they were addressing them as sternly as they were. Barley abandoned her bagubagu container and moved back a little ways with the rest of her comrades. The other Zakos with bagubagu dispensers had also abandoned them, discarding them as they looked to Zapper Zaku for a reaction. The squadron leader immediately showed none, although he was looking at the two newcomers with renowned interest. There was a malevolence there that Barley was not initially comfortable with. The maroon warrior had always been so laid back on the _Magna Musai_ before, but his entire personality seemed to change to something darker once the two automatons showed up.

"Let's start with you droppin' your weapons. Robot citizens are not allowed to be going about with firearms," the tall officer said. His voice laced with a thick accent that Barley did not recognize. His green visor was locked on them fearlessly, as well as the optical sensor on his ball shaped partner.

For a moment, there was a tense pause. It lasted only a second, but it felt so much longer for Barley. A soft breeze made the grass untouched by the bagubagu sway, pulsing over the meadow and making what Barley thought looked like a wave. Finally, Zapper Zaku softly spoke up. "So I see there _are_ robots here," he muttered calmly to himself halfheartedly. Then, without a moment of pause, the maroon squadron leader suddenly pointed a jabbing finger in the direction of the two drones. His voice rose to a commanding shout. "Take 'em out, boys! Turn 'em into _scrap!_"

Instantly, years of intensive training kicked in and they all drew their machineguns without a second thought. Just like the others, it took her no more than two clicks to draw her weapon on the squadron leader's command before immediately filing into her position in the firing squad line. It was a maneuver they had practiced rigorously ever since Commander Sazabi announced their plans to begin their invasion on the dimension assigned to them by the General, but the real reason for rehearsing the move so many times while they were on the _Magna Musai_ was because of the gravity of the situation. The _Magna Musai_ was the head of the entire Dark Axis invasion fleet after all, and no one wanted to leave a weak impression on the rest of the Dark Axis or the world they were invading. They were supposed to be the best of the best. There was no room for hesitation or failure.

They all stepped forward in unison and fired simultaneously.

The recoil from the machinegun nearly made Barley drop her weapon, but her hands instinctively grasped the support handle tighter in fears of letting go. Artificial adrenaline surged through her coolant tubes at the feel of its vibrations whenever it unloaded more rounds. The two law enforcement units jumped back when the first bullets hit the ground just at their feet. Regardless of the fact that they had practiced their aiming as a firing squad, the fact they were in a real life situation and not a simulation had thrown everyone off. Quickly, they all readjusted their aim and hit their targets. The law enforcement drones reached their arm units up in order to shield themselves from the onslaught, but their efforts were entirely vain. Courageous, she mused, but hopeless. The bullets from their machinery did reverberate off their armor, although not before causing heavy damage. The ammunition tore through their armor and someone's line of fire caught the taller officer drone in the head. His helmet was knocked off and bullets tore through the top of his skull, causing him to stagger backward and collapse onto his skid plate. Another Zako soldier managed to blow the top of the spherical drone's top portion off, obliterating the loudspeaker and causing the thing to whoop pathetically before dying away. Barley thought for a split second that she had dealt one of those final blows.

"Cease fire!" That was Zapper Zaku. Through the corner of her vision, she could see him raise his arm into the air and make a cutting motion.

Simultaneously and perfectly in sync, they all released their hold on their triggers. Barley dropped the sights of her weapon and lowered the barrel. Her arms were still shaking. Whether or not it had been from the harsh vibrating of their weapons or adrenaline was beyond her level of comprehension. Ahead of them, the two drones lay in a barely conscious heap against one another.

"All right, this is my last warnin'. Put… down… your… _weapons_…" The mech's slurred, glitching voice died away to a choked whir.

War, she abruptly decided without a second thought, was something that _was_ going to scare her. The horrors of its chaos would certainly leave their mark she decided, because she found that she was _still_ shaking.

**iv**

_Zoom_

It was a good thing he was not claustrophobic. "_Fireball!_ Get your slaggin' skid plate out of my face, zako!"

"Quit your bellyaching, Pipe! I'll get out of your face when _you_ stop pushing me against the fragging damn window!"

A very, _very_ good thing.

The mission itself had started out innocently enough. Since attempting to invade Neotopia directly never seemed to work in their favor even _with_ the added forces of Grappler Gouf and Destroyer Dom, Lord Zapper Zaku decided to take invasion operations back into his own hands with a personally devised plan of his. Regardless of the fact that Zoom had been a participant of enough failed missions to know that _"__Zapper Zaku__"_ and _"__strategic planning__"_ were not two words that were ever intended to be used in the same sentence, even _he_ had to admit that the maroon squadron leader's plan sounded mostly foolproof when it was announced. Commander Sazabi seemed to think so as well, because he gave Zapper Zaku permission to engage in the mission by himself without the aide of his cohorts. There was a great deal of disappointment radiating from Destroyer and an even greater amount of irritation emanating off Grappler but, nevertheless, the eldest squadron leader went over describing how the invasion was to go underway.

The Komusai, entirely unmanned save for a single pilot and co-pilot, would enter Neotopia's dimension approximately fifty miles off the coast of the main city so as not to draw attention. Their next course of action would be to slowly fly below radar towards what the Zako scouts referred to as the Peace Park peninsula. The slow approach would be a horrible waste of fuel but, as Zapper went on to explaining, it was going to be a necessary sacrifice. From what the maroon warrior's head reconnaissance team had learned, Peace Park was a perfect place to invade because of the huge robotic statue that roamed the grounds as its mascot and as a part time amusement ride, which consisted of a huge slow rotating wheel with little pods that individuals could sit inside of. This was apparently referred to as a Ferris wheel, although the concept of such a silly thing went largely unquestioned by the Zakos selected for the mission. Zoom had been one of them. Either way, Zapper Zaku went on to describe that the huge robot - a fifty foot tall femme replica of a human - would be their main weapon once it was equipped with a control horn. Peace Park, as the scouting team had learned, was largely populated with humans during the day, and to have any of those stupid organics in the crossfire between the Dark Axis and the Gundam Force would be disastrous for the latter. This was a good thing, the beaming squadron leader exclaimed. The deaths of innocent humans would spoil the Super Dimensional Guard's secretive operations and ruin them, and all the while the Dark Axis could wreak all the havoc it wanted. Zapper and his team would enter the Zakorello Gate after the Komusai was positioned over the ocean. Under the cover of the very early morning darkness, they would enter the courtyard where the woman robot was parked at night. Then they would all file into the Ferris wheel pods and wait there until the femme robot awoke and was set free into the park. When the time was right and the Komusai close enough to the peninsula, Zapper Zaku would step from his pod when it was directly over the woman's crown, jump, land on her head, and apply the horn. Then they would all attack Peace Park and total chaos would ensue. The Komusai would also aid in the attack, shooting up from beneath the cape and into the air over the park. If things got ugly with the rampaging control-horned femme posing a threat to their wellbeing, they would fall back and pull out of harms way.

It was perfect. Unfortunately, there were some _slight_ hiccups.

Five minutes before the Komusai was supposed to go through the Zakorello Gate to engage in its first part of the mission, there was a brief instrumentation failure with the navigation protocols. They delayed the mission by twenty minutes. Then, when it finally appeared as though the problem was fixed, Joyride's copilot, Barley, collapsed before loading into the ship. The femmebot _had_ been complaining about a light headache that same morning, but the Zako was barely able to speak when she went down. The medic was called up from her lab to immediately see to the problem. That took an extra ten minutes, putting them a solid half-an-hour behind schedule. They were already supposed to be at Peace Park by then. Even worse news came when the medic, Cyan, announced that Barley had come down with a minor virus. It was not life threatening and could easily be treated, but that meant that she would be out of commission and unable to participate in copiloting the Komusai. It took five more minutes to find another copilot, which ended up being Welder. It could not have been a more awful combination, considering that Welder and Joyride often regarded one another spitefully.

By the time the Komusai finally launched, it was forty-three minutes later than what had been planned. It was an entire hour later that Zapper and the rest of them managed to get to Peace Park. The sun was already starting to peek over the horizon line, meaning that their cover of darkness was mostly blown. They had to hustle to the courtyard where the femme giant was held in order to avoid being seen. There were thankfully no guards, but then they hit their next hurdle. The controls for the Ferris wheel were offline and the wheel would not turn to allow them to fill up into the carriages. Prying the electronic doors open to the first pod proved no problem - Zapper Zaku was strong enough to tear it wide open using only his bare hands - but there was no hope to get the wheel to turn as to finish loading the rest of the soldiers into them. It took ten minutes for Ebony to hack the controls and activate the machinery. By then, the sun had brightened up the courtyard greatly and it was only a matter of time before a human went in to check on the statue robot and found them trying to break into it. That would have gotten ugly. Thankfully enough, it was not the case. Ebony got it online and the rest of them were able to load on without as much as a hitch… which also proved problems of its own.

Zapper Zaku, being as protective as he was over the Zakos, made sure every one of them got on before he did. While he stood stiffly with his machine guns at the ready in case they were discovered, he had everyone load up. The pods themselves were relatively small and cramped, but the fact they were running out of time before someone was bound to spot them caused a minor panic amongst them. Instead of accounting for the fact that there were eight pods and fifty-four of them, they fit as many of them as they could onto a single carriage before having the wheel turn and loading the next one. By the time everyone was actually on, there were nine of them all cramped together per pod… on six of the _eight_ carriages. Zapper took up the second to last one by himself sheepishly, which left another completely open. Having one of the eight open ended up being the best solution since a blonde haired human femme appeared in the courtyard and loaded into it with a grey GM and a grey clad orange haired male human - the Dark Axis troops all breathed a collective sigh of relief when it became apparent that they all went unnoticed - but the fact remained that it was as definitely overcrowded in pods. At that point everyone was eager for the actual invasion to begin so that they could get out, but their hopes were quickly dashed when the femme robot awoke and moved out of the courtyard towards Peace Park in the distance.

The robot moved incredibly, _ridiculously_ slow.

Zoom had originally presumed her to be fast judging by her long legs, but it was made obvious that his presumption had been wrong. He was positive that even Zapper Zaku would have been able to outrun her, and that was saying something because, just as _"__Zapper Zaku__"_ and _"__strategic planning__"_ were not words meant to be used in relation with one another, using _"__Zapper Zaku__"_ and _"__outrun__"_ were two words not ever meant to meet as well… that was unless you were referring to someone being able to outrun _Zapper_. In which case, using the two words together became acceptable.

The whole arrangement of being caught in the congested carriages was a nuisance, but quickly changed from irritating to just downright cruelty after the first _two hours_. The robotic woman was not moving at a turtle's pace. It was a _snail's_ pace. Whether or not this was because of the fact that she was fully loaded with passengers or just normal was unanswered, but the amount of time that passed became evident when they received a confused radio broadcast from the Komusai. They all heard it through their communicators even though the address had been directly aimed at their squadron leader. It was Joyride, asking where the frell they were. Zapper responded in a tired tone saying that they were on their way… if not slowly. He gave the Zako orders to stay put with the Komusai, which lead to the next problem. Welder cut in, saying that they were low on fuel. The mission should have ended by then - they were an entire two hours behind schedule at that point in time - and Zapper cursed out loud through the radio vulgarly enough to make everyone cringe at the coarseness. Things were definitely not going as planned. He gave them the order to stay put, but that still the least of their mounting problems.

Inside the carriages, it was getting very hot _very_ fast.

It went mostly unnoticed at first but, as the inside of the enclosed Ferris wheel baskets started to heat up from the sun outside causing a greenhouse effect, the temperature spiked. There were air conditioning vents on the ceiling of the pods, but it was obvious that it was not activated because, granted, there was not supposed to be anyone in there. It must have been automated, he thought, to save energy. After all, it only made sense to save energy by not using air conditioning in pods that were empty… or empty, at least, in the minds of the people who did not know they were up there. If that was not bad enough, the fact that all the Zakos' collected breathing caused the air to become even hotter. The congested feel of the carriages went from bad to worse, right up until the point where Red opened the radio and, panicked, spoke through it saying that Blue had fainted from overheating inside of their carriage. Ebony immediately set to work inside of her basket trying to fix the problem by rewiring the ventilation to all the pods instead of the one that the oblivious humans and single GM were in. During that time, another Zako fainted. This time it was Boomer. This made Pipe - one of the Zakos that Zoom was in a carriage with - very irritable. There was no questioning their close friendship, and to know that Boomer was potentially sick of heatstroke made the already aggressive Zako more feisty than usual. Even when the air conditioning finally kicked in - again, another collective sigh of respite was shared between all of them - but that did not stop Pipe from squirming around in place. Granted how little room there was to begin with, this made him more irritated than he already was. Then he and Fireball started arguing.

If Zoom had been claustrophobic, he probably would have fainted right there and then. Just when it seemed like no more stress or hardships could be thrown at them, they were. The last thing he wanted to hear was fighting.

"Knock it off, zako," Zoom said warningly. He turned his head to look at the two bickering Zakos. Pipe had his hands on Fireball's shoulders and was trying to push her away, although this did nothing more than shove her against the window. The femmebot was starting to loose her lack of complaint with the thickheaded mech and looked about ready to turn around break his fingers. While such an occurrence would have been fun to watch on any other occasion, this was certainly not one of them. The other six Zakos in the pod - Yellow, Cook, Meta, Gadget, Storm, and Ironride - all watched them with tentative wariness. Considering how close they all were to one another, any one of them was bound to get caught in the middle of a fistfight if one broke out.

Ironride held up his hands. "Now, I know this is all very stressing zako zako, but-"

Pipe turned his head to glare accusingly at the older bot. "Can it old man, I didn't ask _you_-"

Storm hissed bitingly through her vents. The femme was usually quiet and docile, but the pressure of their straining situation was undoubtedly making her own patience thin. "Can you _not_ go on a power trip just this once, Pipe? It's been a long day and we're all tired, zako."

Zoom turned his head away, feeling irritated himself. They were already at Peace Park - the Ferris wheel had actually stopped turning once in order to let the two humans and one GM dismount from their carriage - but it was still a matter of waiting for the right moment to attack when no one would suspect one. Granted the fact that _every single_ human in the park had been looking and smiling stupidly at the femme statue when they finally did arrive, they were forced to wait longer. At least now it looked like no one was paying much attention to the Ferris wielding woman anymore…

Just then, Fireball squealed. "_PIPE!_ Shove me _again_ and I will break. _Your. ARM._ ZAKO."

Zoom snapped his head over to look. While Meta and Cook cowered in a corner with Ironride standing in front of them protectively with his arms widespread, Fireball and Pipe were looking at one another with snarling expressions. Both Storm and Yellow had shrunken away from the both of them to protect themselves from any blows that might be exchanged.

Then finally came a ray of light.

_"Does anybody see the Gundams?"_ That was Zapper Zaku.

Through the radio, there were collective cheers of triumph loud enough to make the radio crackle from the excessive activity. Even in the carriage he was in, the air immediately went from dreary to sparking excitement. Gadget, Yellow, Meta, Cook, Ironride, and Storm whooped simultaneously while Fireball only grinned with extreme relief. Pipe was not doing anything. Probably still fuming, but Zoom could have cared less. Zapper asking questions like that usually meant that they were getting ready to mobilize, and that in turn meant that they were going to be able to get out of the rotating baskets. Before anyone else could chime in, he opened up his communications and spoke. Through the radio, it immediately became quiet. "Zako. No sign of the Gundam Force, sir, zako zako,"

"_Phew. That sure is a relief…_"

Zoom raised a corner of his optical lens. "Zako? Come again sir, zako?

The squadron leader fumbled on the other side of the communications connection, revealing that he had not expected to be heard. "_Erm, nothing. Now then, if you're absolutely_ sure _the coast is clear…_"

Zoom nodded. "Affirmative. We're safe, zako. A good idea to hide from them in these rotating pleasure pods, sir. I don't blame you for not wanting to face them again, zako zako."

Although, even _he_ had to admit that he would have rather faced Captain Gundam than stay in the carriages for any longer. A good idea to hide from the Gundam Force in the rotating pleasure pods? _Please._

They all loved Zapper Zaku for their own reasons, but _"__strategic planning__" _was certainly not one of them. All the while, Zoom was still very glad that he was not claustrophobic.

**v**

_Jaggar_

It was dark when they got to the manufacturing district.

They did not worry much about being detected for two main reasons. For one, they did not have the Komusai with them, and therefore did not need to expand the size of the Zakorello Gate to accommodate for that. Because it was only the three of them, the Zakorello Gate's exit point was no bigger than they were. They had already learned from past experience that the Gundam Force had a very difficult time detecting the gate exit vortex was smaller than ten feet in diameter, and therefore the Zakos had no reason to fear an ambush. The second reason was that their current task was not the cause havoc like they usually did.

They were on reconnaissance, and their particular task was very dire. It was a recovery mission.

All three of them turned and watched as the Zakorello Gate vanished away. When it did, Red turned to him. "We have five minutes the gate will reopen to let us back through, zako. We have until then to figure out what happened to them."

Jaggar nodded. "Then let's go."

He had to wonder how it was that they had ended up needing to go on reconnaissance. An entire Komusai jam packed with explosive weapons and three squadron leaders were _not_ just supposed to disappear into thin air. The day had started out good enough, too. After Commander Sazabi chewed Zapper, Grappler, and Destroyer out for their failed missions, the three of them had come to an agreement to put aside their difference and work together… which was something that Jaggar had to seriously question in regards as to why they never just did that in the first place. Regardless, the three of them had come up with a signature move - something they referred to as _The Dark Axis Rainbow Doom Boom_, for whatever ungodly reason - and then they decided to load the Komusai with all their available explosives from the armory and go to Neotopia to engage the Gundams themselves.

When they disappeared through the Zakorello Gate ten hours earlier, that had been the last anyone had seen of them.

After they never returned, communications were attempted. This proved fruitless in finding them, because Chobirello - the smaller warp device that was directly linked to the Zakorello Gate - was not activated. Such an occurrence was practically unheard of, but that was the least of their problems. Without Chobirello online, attempting to communicate to the Komusai while it was in an entirely separate dimension was completely impossible. Commander Sazabi never made an announcement over the ship wide intercom about a potential failure made by the three squad leaders, but that was not going to stop the Zakos from searching for them. It was entirely against protocol, but Red - as ever vigilant as the _Zako Zako Hour_ host was - organized plans for a reconnaissance mission and potential rescue party if needed. As such, the Zakos all gathered for an emergency _Zako Zako Hour_ to discuss plans for it. He said that he personally would go for the reconnaissance portion, but needed two more volunteers.

Blitz had first offered. Then Jaggar did.

The operation was to go over as followed. Red, Blitz, and Jaggar would enter Neotopia at the missing squadron leaders' last known coordinates to attempt recovering them. _Attempt._

Already it did not look promising.

The battlefield was wrecked and scarred from the conflict that had undoubtedly taken place. Skid marks, crumbled sheet metal, and wasted slabs of torn debris lay scatted about in broken, mangled heaps. Blitz whistled from his place beside him. "They certainly did cause a ruckus, zako."

"That's not our concern, zako zako," Red said. The _Zako Zako Hour_ host's voice was strained with worry. There was no arguing that he was highly worried about the whereabouts of their missing officers. He turned to look at him and Blitz with a bright pink optic. "We need to find them."

"Do you think…?" Blitz trailed off.

Red was instantly snarling at him. "No. They came up with that new signature move, remember? They should have been fine, zako."

"_Should have,_" Jaggar said. He gestured around himself at the destruction. Although the three of them were the top candidates on the _Magna Musai_ for officer positions, there was no arguing that he was the most cool headed. "That obviously wasn't the case here. Even I hate to say it, but Blitz is right. They could have been either captured or killed, and I know that they wouldn't ever let the Gundams take them alive."

A look of profound horror passed over Red's face.

Blitz interrupted. "By any means, they're not here," he mused. "I can't detect the Komusai energy signature. If it's anywhere, it's certainly not here… and if it is, it's not in one piece."

"Don't say that," Red snapped. "Let's not jump to conclusions about anything. We'll take a look around and see if we can find anything that might be able to point out to us what the frell happened. _Then_ we can try to draw conclusions." The _Zako Zako Hour_ host's voice was firm with resolve, but even Jaggar had to admit that there was a slight undertone of shakiness underlining it. Red was drastically worried.

They split up. Red took the eastern part of the district bay closest to the waterline. Blitz took the open middle section to search amongst the still-smoldering debris. Jaggar took the westernmost half to look around some of the smashed buildings and crates. That particular area appeared to him to be the most battle-torn, judging by how much damage the crates and equipment had sustained. There were the smashed remains of a worker office that was still smoldering, a dozen large metal crates reduced to nothing but ravaged scrap, and the Zako even noticed that there were the distinct black skid marks left behind from Destroyer Dom's roller heels. Here and there were the rogue scorch marks of a beam rifle, suggesting that Captain Gundam had entered the fray, undoubtedly, alongside his own comrades. Jaggar shuddered. Fights between the Dark Axis and Gundam Force usually did not last long under normal circumstances when the squadron leaders at least had the company of a dozen or so Zako soldiers, but even with their new signature move… Jaggar did not need to be a security analyst to know that it could not have ended well for their Lords and, as awful as the prospect was, Jaggar had the undying and sinking sensation that they were not going to find their leaders during this one sweep alone.

While he momentarily contemplated how torn his comrades would be to learn the potential fate of Lord Zapper Zaku - they were much closer to him than the other two squadron leaders, given that Zapper was the only one who actually cared for them as individuals instead of a single horde - he felt something crunch and squeak under his foot.

Jaggar looked down, and felt his optic widen in surprise.

Chobirello, for no excuse, could be misplaced. The dimensional phone was not solely a communicator, but a sentient entity whose species had been mostly wiped out in the wake of a mass extinction in the dimension where they were from. The species, Dimenrello, was unique because its method of processing energy, or general feeding, was carried out by "consuming" matter, forcing it through a self generated wormhole, and then having it exit in an entirely separate dimension. This was why the dying species caught the attention of the Dark Axis. The General himself, back in the army's early days, had several Musais capture Dimenrellos for the purpose of using them as dimensional transports for the new expansion of inter-dimensional invasions. Of the nine who were originally caught, only one survived. That one ultimately became the "crown jewel" to be assigned only to the head Musai in the invasion force in the fleet. It was tradition to pass the newly dubbed Zakorello Gate to each head invasion Musai when it was promoted. Granted the fact that Commander Sazabi had been advanced to the position to head commander nine years prior, the Zakorello Gate had been passed onto his ship as well.

It was around that time that Chobirello appeared.

For some reason, the little offspring Dimenrello had appeared out of the blue hovering around the Zakorello Gate chirping and cooing. It was immediately captured much to the dissatisfaction of the Zakorello Gate, who not only ate four of the Zako soldiers who tried to calm the brute down - they were recovered of course, although obviously shaken - but who also garnered Sazabi's personal attention when the commander threatened to kill the infant Dimenrello if he did not immediately cease his raving. That caused the gate creature to instantly cease its rampage. As testing showed, the newborn Dimenrello was indeed the offspring of the Zakorello Gate… how in the Pitt he managed to find a mate and breed without anyone noticing, no one could determine. Perhaps, it was theorized, that the newborn had come through the Zakorello Gate itself after its mother had birthed it. No one was entirely sure how the reproductive system of the endangered dimensional species, so it was mostly shoved aside and disregarded. That, however, did not stop them from using Chibirello to their advantage. Whereas before they had to use specially heavy and laborious equipment to communicate with the Dark Axis when they were on the other side of dimensions, Chobirello had a direct link to her father. If spoken at like a radio or phone, the message would be immediately received by the larger Dimenrello. Having the Zakorello Phone was a _huge_ advantage and it was a general rule of thumb that, if anyone somehow lost Chibirello, Commander Sazabi - and perhaps all of the other commanders _and_ General Zeong himself - would personally throw the careless offender into an acid pit.

Looking dusty and mostly abandoned underneath his foot, Jaggar decided that Chobirello looked horridly misplaced and lost.

He picked her up and ran back over to his comrades. "Hey! Guess who I found!"

When they all met up again, Blitz and Red exchanged strange looks before looking back towards the communicator. Red looked horrified. Blitz seemed distant. The latter muttered a soft curse. "Damn. This doesn't look good, zako."

Red shook his head. "I don't get it. Zapper would never leave the Zakorello Phone out in the open like that. Not unless he dropped it zako, and how do you drop something so important like _that?_"

That was when he noticed something in the water past his comrades' shoulders. Jaggar perked to attention. "What the _frell_ is _that?_"

It was something that probably had not garnered Red's attention despite the fact that he was so close to the water, because he had been looking mostly at what was on the mainland. In the distance over the water however, they could see something flickering orange and crimson red on the horizon with an eerie menace. From Jaggar's gained experience, he knew that fires did not just start out in the middle of the ocean for no reason. Something had probably exploded and crashed over the water.

Jaggar looked at Blitz and Red. Both mechs looked dismayed.

He reactivated the small dimensional communication device. Chobirello groaned but voiced no actual complaint. Jaggar spoke. "This is the reconnaissance team to base. Do you guys copy?"

_"We copy loud and clear."_ That was Welder. Somewhere in the background, a voice asked about the Komusai. Jaggar was entirely positive it was Joyride. Either way, he went ignored and Welder spoke again regardless to the other mech's probing. "_Can you give us a situation report? Where are they?_"

"Zako. We found Chobirello as you can already guess, zako zako. It's a mess down here."

"_What about Lords Zapper, Gouf, and Dom?_"

He looked up to glance at the sparkling orange blot in the distance.

"We're going to need Lord Gouf's hover boat, zako."

**vi**

_Pickaxe_

"Hey Pick-"

"_ZAKO!_"

There were several amusing things about Pickaxe that many of the Zakos found entertaining. It was an awful thing to find funny, but no one could really help themselves. Firstly, Pickaxe had the weirdest hang-ups. If he spotted a fluorescent light in one of the hallways of the _Magna Musai_ that had burned out, he had to immediately drop whatever it was he was doing in order to see to the problem being fixed. Given that there were at _least_ one or two lights in the entire ship burned out at any one point, it was very common to see the Zako standing on a step ladder replacing the lighting himself.

Another element of the engineer that the other soldiers found entertaining was that he was prone to nervous muttering and talking to himself. When he was first transferred to the _Magna Musai_ from the _Catapult Musai_ under Commander Jarja, his incessant mutterings mostly went ignored and dismissed as being a nervous tic that was set off by being transferred to a new ship, but it became more noticeable and more unnerving after his first six months of residency. When he was finally questioned about it, he replied somewhat abashedly that it was a nervous tic… a permanent one. Apparently during his time on the _Catapult Musai_, a near-fatal disaster where the engine almost exploded - while he was also locked in the engine room to boot - did not leave him all that mentally intact. He was diagnosed with severe paranoia by the medics who saw to him after the engines were stabilized and him rescued. The _Magna Musai_'s sole medic, Cyan, overheard his explanation and was outraged to realize that the officers in charge of his transfer had not sent over that part of his medical history. After several angry transmissions sent by her and lord Zapper Zaku sometime later, the medics of the _Catapult Musai_ finally forked over the reports. They had apparently been afraid to give them, and for a good reason. Pickaxe did not just have paranoia. He had _severe_ paranoia.

This ended up being less of a problem and more hilarious than anything else. Jaggar found that point proven on his way down to the barracks. The low whisper of mutterings from up another corridor caught his attention and he grinned to himself. Making a beeline towards the sounds, he came across a somewhat darkened hallway. Somewhat darkened, because one of the lights was burned out. Pickaxe stood, muttering the whole while, while he fumbled replacing the empty lamp head with the new light rod. The broken one sat propped up against the side of the step ladder. When the Zako finally managed to replace the rod, the light came on.

That was when Jaggar tried to greet him. Pickaxe screamed and the ladder went toppling over. The burnt out light rod shattered and the ladder landed with a heavy thud.

Jaggar leaned against the post and looked up, amused. "Pickaxe, it's _just_ me."

Pickaxe turned his head sharply to look accusingly at him. In between heavily labored breaths, he spoke. "Don't. Ever. Do. That. _Again._"

The other soldier grinned up at him and his optic flashed benevolently. "You mean you don't want me to ever say hello to you ever again? Pickaxe, I'm hurt."

"Not nearly as hurt as when I get down from here and kick your sorry skid plate. You _know_ I spook!"

Jaggar shrugged kicked his feet at the ground. It was not uncommon for Pickaxe to threaten such things, but it was another thing altogether for him to actually follow through with them. In short, the ever anxious Zako was mostly harmless towards his fellow brethren. Overall though, despite how entertaining it was to watch Pickaxe have an occasional nervous breakdown, he still had Jaggar to make sure that he did not completely lose it. Jaggar made it his personal business to assure that his friend always had someone to go to.

"Jaggar?"

"Zako? You called?"

"…Could you help me get down from hanging off this lamp now, zako?"

Jaggar smiled.

**vii**

_Meta_

Seeing as he was one of the younger recruits on the _Magna Musai_, it did not take much to convince him to do something. _Anything._ So when someone paged him to role play as Captain Gundam for a training exercise on the Musai's deck, who was he to say no? Looking back on the situation later on however, Meta realized he probably should have.

With his eager vigor radiating off his person like heat from a small furnace, he scampered onto the "battle field" when Zapper Zaku called out that the exercise was to begin. It had already been discussed that "Captain" was to be sent out first. Meta was not the only one role playing either. Off to the side preparing for their turn, Red was wearing a crude knight's uniform with a whisk serving as his sword in hand. The _Zako Zako Hour_ host looked woefully embarrassed with his head downcast and mouthpiece moving with his discontented muttering while Yellow tied a rope around his waist that was connected to a pole being held by a highly amused looking, sniggering Blue. They were apparently going to suspend Red in the air to play as Zero. With them also preparing for their turn, the part of Bakunetsumaru was being played by Pickaxe wielding two mops like swords. Joyride and Jaggar were with him, jointly wearing a crudely made cardboard replica of Entango over their heads so that their feet would appear to be the horse's legs.

Still, Meta could not help but to let his young pride swell joyously. He beamed to himself. _"__But_I_get to play the role as Captain Gundam.__"  
_  
Adorned on his head was a pair of salad tongs spray painted gold to look like the Gundam's v-fin while he wielded a camera to serve as his gun and a clothes iron to be his shield. As to how the Zakos in charge of the costume making had been able to come across those items, Meta had absolutely _no_ idea. It was not as if it mattered of course, because the little Zako came to a halt and lifted his 'gun' upward so that the aim was towards the empty air above him. "I have been granted a special dispensation by authorities to use firearms in order to defend Neotopia from _invasion_, and um, erm, uh…" he scrambled momentarily to remember his lines.

Off to his side, Blitz scrambled onto the battlefield. The older warrior made it to Meta's side and Meta, upon seeing him, leaned towards the other mech. Blitz whispered in his audio. "You will lay down your weapons and withdraw at once, zako zako," he reminded in a hushed tone before running off to the sidelines again in a noticeably hurried manner. He seemed to be in a rush, but Meta could not understand why right away. Stage fright, maybe? More than likely. Meta did not have to worry about that.

Unfortunately for him, he realized far too late that stage fright was the least of his worries.

Remembering his lines and regaining his confidence, he turned back to face the three squadron leaders watching him. Zapper Zaku, Grappler Gouf, and Destroyer Dom were scrutinizing him expectantly. The little Zako resumed. "You will lay down your weapons and withdraw at _once_," he said boldly. He let his form go even more rigid at attention, straightening out the posture of his crudely made camera gun and ironing shield. "_Zako!_"

Zapper Zaku glowered at him, fitting into his own role. "_Captain_, my old nemesis! You're in for an unpleasant surprise today…"

All three squadron leaders suddenly moved simultaneously. This alone was enough to momentarily worry Meta, as the three warriors never did _anything_ in organized synchronization. Organized synchronization came with working with teamwork, and teamwork alone was something that he personally thought the three squad leaders incapable of. Grappler moved between his two cohorts with his claws poised and sword drawn, Zapper flanked his right with his machine guns held at the ready, and Destroyer at his left with his arm thrown up.

…Oh. It was a training exercise for the _squadron leaders_… to test out their new signature move.

Meta sagged mentally and watched as the blast of energy - _The Dark Axis Rainbow Doom Boom_ - rushed at him. "…Slag."

He made a brief mental note not to let people talk him into as much harebrained stuff anymore.

**viii**

_Tally_

The moment Tally realized something was wrong was when something squished underneath her foot, and when her foot stuck to the ground as she tried to continue running forward.

With a shriek, the young Zako femme fell forward and lost hold on her machinegun. It went flying through the air and landed on the ground sprawling ahead of her several dozen feet away. As if to add insult to injury, when she _did_ manage to slightly regain her balance, she almost lost it again in her attempts to free her footing. Despite the fact that she was blatantly and hopelessly stuck, she still attempted to reach out for her weapon anyways. To no such luck, her foot caught and refused to lift from the ground.

The battle had started out innocently enough. Granted battles themselves were never actually _innocent_ per se, but there was nothing unusual about the beginnings of the fight itself. The Komusai breached the dimension through the Zakorello Gate easily and, under the orders of Zapper Zaku, the soldiers responsible for handling the bagubagu canisters turned the mecha insects loose once they touched down. In less than three minutes, the whole area within an entire mile in all directions had been turned to concrete. Although the mission was being led by their new squadron leader Grappler Gouf - much to Zapper's obviously irritated disdain, as the two hated one another for some private reason that went undisclosed - that itself had nothing to do with it. Captain Gundam eventually showed up as expected, but even then the battle remained mostly normal… except for the fact that it seemed that they were actually winning against him, which was a plus.

She looked behind her and saw that her foot was solidly glued to the ground. No one could have possiblely factored that Pit forsaken _glue_ was going to going to be a problematic issue.

Perhaps had the ground been grassy and not stone, they wouldn't have gotten stuck. All around her, she watched as more and more of her comrades became trapped as she was. They had all previously been charging at Captain Gundam with Zapper Zaku leading their attack, but it was obvious from where she stood that their maroon squad leader had also gotten himself stuck. As the maroon warrior tugged fruitlessly at his leg in an attempt to free his foot, Zakos all around her were falling victim to the same predicament. Running, stepping in one of the random green blobs that fell from the sky, and instantly becoming immobile.

Tally looked up.

Captain Gundam's human pet was soaring over the battlefield strapped to some ridiculous flying contraption, grinning victoriously. Overhead he called, "Captain! Operation 'superglue' is a big success!"

Tally felt her optic twitch irritably.

**ix**

_Lure_

Beside him, Showdown winced. "Zako…"

Clang stared down questionably. "Zako, zako?"

Lure cursed. "Fraggit."

Certainly, the day could have been going better. Currently however, it was painfully evident that it was going to be a bad day for the Dark Axis… and the Gundams had not even showed up yet. From their place standing on the tracks, the Zakos watched their squadron leader's prone structure. Grappler Gouf was not moving. His optic was dark from his unconsciousness and his joints were locked.

Welder looked up into the darkness of the tunnel critically. Finally, he reached up and rubbed the back of his head in a stupor . "Well _this_ is great, zako zako. How the frell are we supposed to get the boat back?"

"It'll stop on its own," Lure said slowly. "But we'll need to go retrieve it ourselves if Lord Gouf doesn't wake up, zako. He has the recall codes, and can't remotely call it back unless he's conscious."

"Definitely out cold," Cyan muttered to herself somewhere behind him, entirely unmindful to his conversation but still managing to contradict it. Lure turned his head to glance at her. She was still checking over the colonel's vitals. The teal mech in question still had all his joints locked from the shock of hitting the overhead of the tunnel. Cyan looked him over again and made a face. "His onboard computers are glitching from the collision with the archway over the train tunnel. Was anyone clocking how fast he was going, zako?"

Earlier in the week, when he and a few other Zako troops had been scouting the train tracks to see how fast the trains moved - and how many tons in valuable freight they carried in resources, which was what the Dark Axis was after - he had personally made the discovery that the speed of the trains changed depending on the area they were in. Places where the tracks ran beside sidewalks or populated sections of Neotopia, they went anywhere from thirty miles an hour to as slow as five. Out in the wilderness however, they went anywhere from sixty to eighty. They were out in the wilderness. Lure made a face and turned away from the lab medic, turning his attention to regarding the tunnel the trains had vanished along with Lord Grappler Gouf's hover board. He twisted his mouthpiece in a dissatisfied frown. "We should probably go looking for the boat before he wakes up, zako. He won't be happy if anything happened to it."

No one answered him.

He turned to meet the sight of his shuffling comrades. Finally, after an awkward pause, Yellow piped up. He touched his finger to the top edge of his mouthpiece. The _Zako Zako Hour_ co-host had an air of innocence looming over him. "Not it."

Lure sighed and smacked his hand to his forehead.

**x**

_Guarder_

He lived up to his namesake readily.

There was no questioning that he was one of the stronger of the Zakos. Not physically, no - their identically-modeled bodies prevented that - but mentally. Back when the _Magna Musai_ nearly crashed into the Axia continent during the mining extraction error incident, he had been the coolest headed of all of them. He had been at the barracks with the other off-duty soldiers when the first tremors hit, and he was the only one who did not shriek in initial terror when the entire room started to tilt onto its side. When he finally _did_ start screaming, it was not from terror. It was to get the soldiers in the higher barracks on the left wall - the room was tilting onto its right - to get down and onto the ground. The Zako's voice carried just as loud, if not louder, than Zapper Zaku's and the Commander's voice combined, so it was no surprise that everyone immediately got down at his command. In fact, even during situations when their lives were not seemingly in danger - and when the entire ship was not leaning on its right side - they all still had a tendency to listen to Guarder.

It was not that the Zako was frightening, no, but because he was so protective of his brethren that their listening to him was usually _always_ a good idea. Even Zapper Zaku had the sensitivity of his audios turned up for him whenever the soldier made suggestions about the safety of his fellows during battles, and occasionally even battle tactics. As long as his comrades were safe… which was why he even went as far as to personally address Commander Sazabi about the lack of ladders in barrack hall. Because many of the cubicles where the Zakos slept were impossible to reach unless someone in a lower cubicle could give them a leg up into the next one until they reached their own, accidents were bound to eventually happen. Worried over the possibility of someone falling and seriously injuring themselves, the Zako ventured to the _Magna Musai_'s Commander's office to address the situation and propose that something be installed against the walls between the berths to allow for Zakos to more easily climb up.

The others, horrified, did not expect their comrade to return in one piece.

However, not _only_ did he come back in one piece at the end of the day, but he was smiling broadly as well. Not only did Commander Sazabi readily agree with the plan Guarder had concocted, but he had also given Guarder complete control over the project. The engineers came up and installed curved, arching pipes that the Zakos could step on and grab hold of. The ladders were a huge hit. Everyone knew that Guarder definitely earned his nickname "Guard Dog" for a reason.

That reason was made especially clear when the ladders proved themselves. The Zakos on the left hand wall were able to quickly get out of their berths by climbing down the ladders when the ship started to tilt on its right side. Without the ladders having been there, there wouldn't have been a way for anyone to get down without jumping and seriously hurting themselves. Then, when everyone was down, Guarder made the command for everyone to get onto the floor or cram into the two lower level bunks. No one was to go up higher than three levels. The Zakos who were already up that high were allowed to stay, but were to immediately come down if the room started to tilt the other way. Guarder had the entire situation under control.

When the ship finally stopped tilting, and when Commander Sazabi announced over the intercom that the emergency was over, it was immediately recognized that he very much undoubtedly prevented someone from seriously getting hurt in the near-disaster. Even Zapper Zaku personally went out of his way to thank him.

That evening however, when he was settling down into his berth in his cubicle, he heard a knock. He turned his head to see that a Zako soldier was peeking in through the entrance to the tiny sleeping space.

Guarder perked to attention. "Clang?"

The younger Zako was a friend of his, mostly because the younger recruit deeply fancied his older cohort for his charisma and defiant protectiveness. If there was anything that Guarder was able to deduce about the younger soldiers, it was that they had a tendency to cling to certain people. For Clang, that just happened to be him. As well, it occurred to Guarder that Clang was one of the many Zakos unfortunate enough to be working in the mining bay control room where the source of the disaster had originated. Apparently one of the tether beams had malfunctioned during a mining procedure - where they used gravity beams to bring up pieces of earth from Axia's continent and mine it for fuel - and the strength of that same said beam would have been monitored and maintained in that control room. If anything, Guarder expected the poor mech to be traumatized. Instead, he looked terribly guilty.

"Can I talk to you?" The younger soldier's voice was tentative and questioning.

Guarder made a gesture for him to come in. "Sure thing. What can I do for you?"

For a moment, Clang did not move. Finally, after a brief pause of painfully blatant hesitation, the Zako moved into the bunk with a tentative slowness. Immediately he moved toward Guarder and Guarder wrapped his arms around his shoulder while the younger buried his face against his. It was a common gesture that Guarder let Clang express, mainly because it was in the younger's nature to find comfort in it and Guarder's nature in return to provide that comfort.

"Do you know if anyone got hurt?"

Guarder shook his head, reaching a hand up to run the back of the younger's helmet. "No. Why -?"

The smaller Zako's voice was abruptly teary. "It's my fault."

"It's not your fault. It was probably just an instrument error with the-"

Suddenly, without warning, the smaller mech let out a tiny sob. "No, you _don't_ understand. It really is my fault we nearly crashed, Guard Dog. I… I didn't double check the strength of the beams when I was told to! I wasn't paying attention and then…" The small mech shuddered and kept bawling.

Guarder, without even needing to think about his actions before he acted on them, hugged the younger tighter to him and rubbed circles on the back of his helmet. "That doesn't matter now. You can't undo what's already been done, so let it go and just promise yourself to be more careful next time, zako. Everyone makes mistakes."

"Even you?" Clang's voice was disbelieving.

Guarder rubbed the back of his helmet with wider circles. "Everyone."

Clang said nothing. Eventually, after some time passed, Guarder looked down and realized that the younger mech had fallen asleep. He could not bring it upon himself to wake the small mech up. Sighing, he leaned back in his berth to try to get into a comfortable sleeping position with Clang half sprawled on top of him. Thankfully Guarder was comfortable and Clang was a very heavy sleeper. The recharging Zako did not as much as stir when Guarder moved him on his side to sleep next to him. Instantly, the younger mech curled into a ball and nuzzled his head into Guarder's chassis. Guarder did not mind in the least.

He continued to live up to his namesake, and he did so with a mostly silent and protective vigil.


End file.
